I'm looking at buying LTs, do you guys end up having any problems with when you remove the AIR and EGR hookups with your cars? the car will be a heads/cam/nitrous car and will be tuned, i have no clue what the AIR does, but I know the EGR is a good system for a street car that helps disapate heat from the motor when hot, what if I were to just run the car richer to essentially do the same thing (cool the motor... without puting burned exhaust back into motor to take up displacement)? any help here would be helpful..

 

I would just take em both out if i were doing headers. The air pump is usually defective anyays and takes up a whole bunch of room. I don't know too much about the egr, it really doesnt take up too much room and doesnt cause much problem so you could leave it if you want. I hear it causes the intake leak because of its location but for many people, it is not a problem. Since you have odb1, id ditch both and you wouldnt even need a tune.

 

I planned on removing mine when I did my lt's but didn't get the block off plates in time, and having to put the air and egr stuff back in made the install a whole lot worse. and I'm still planning on pulling them so just that much more work

 

does anyone have problems with disappating heat on their street cars with the egr removed?? The egr seems to be a good system thats been around forever, it is pretty useless on drag only cars, but I dunno, it seems like a lot of people just ditch the system.. how do your cars run with the egr and air removed?

 

i removed the egr and air and then had them tuned out after my cam install. I'd reccomend it even if all youre doing is cleaning up the engine bay. i hate egr because it puts soot all inside the intake manifold. My car runs perfectly without it.

 

Same here.
Took out the AIR and EGR when I put LTs in 2 years ago.
It runs 13.4 @ 104 in the 1/4 with 1.8 sixty foot times. I drive it everyday during the summer and have no problems.

 

Never a problem here without em. Take em out their ugly and in the way. IMO

 

Take it out, makes the engine bay look a lot nicer plus it gives you an excuse to fab up some blockoff plates which is always fun.

 

The EGR's role is a little more involved than "disappating heat". The exhaust gasses are introduced to the combustion chamber to displace oxygen, and quench combustion temperatures, but only under conditions that would lead to the formation of oxides of nitrogen (NOx). As combustion chamber temps climb, the formation of NOx is more likely. A typical condition that triggers EGR flow is lugging the engine at to low an RPM in too high a gear. In addition to reducing combustion chamber temps under those conditions, the EGR also helps reduce the tendancy to detonate (knock).

EGR does not operate at idle, does not operate over 3,500rpm and does not operate at WOT. It has absolutley no negative affect on performance (unless the valve is leaky and allow exhaust to enter the intake manifold when it isn't supposed to). There is no real "clutter" with the EGR system.... its all hidden behind the intake manifold. I really can't see any good reason to delete it on a "street" car.

AIR is only used for a couple minutes at startup. It helps burn unburned hydrocarbons that result from the enriched cold start mixture, and the heat from that exothermic combustion speeds up the heating of the catalyst. It has to reach 600deg before it will work. Once the cat is heated up, the AIR system shuts down. Never affects perfromance in any way. I would agree there is a bit of clutter from the system.

Point is though, deleting the systems does nothing for performance, except a few pounds of weight savings. If you live where there are visual emissions inspections, they'll probably notice they are missing. If you live where they check tailpipe emissions on an I/M240 style dyno test, you run the risk of increased NOx emissions.

I put together an 800HP nitroused stroker, and kept all the emissions systems intact (at least as long as the car was street driven). Didn't hurt my performance in any way, and the car passed rolling emissions. The only problem the car had on the "visual" was the fact that I had increased the number of cats from 1 to 2, and relocated them. But most inspection shops didn't know the difference on that point.

 

Injuneer (last post) did a good job of explain what EGR and AIR are: EGR recirculates hot exhaust gas back into the engine for lower emissions and AIR is used to help keep your CATS good while they are still cold (at start up). I removed both EGR and AIR when I put my headers in. If you are taking out your CATS then you have no need for AIR. I don't know how important it is to have if you are keeping them. I see no down side to removing the EGR so that you aren't pumping hot air back in either. Just make sure to block the openings on your intake. And as everyone else says, it cleans up the engine bay and gets rid of useless weight.

 

sounds good, I will be taking them both out.. Is there somewhere where you can buy block off plates for the intake manifold or is that something you just rig up????

 

First, you can either rig up a plate or go to your dealer and buy one for an LT4 engine. The LT4's use the blockoff plate from the factory.

Second, I have never seen headers that have hook ups for just the EGR and not the AIR. They either have them both, or have neither.

Third, Injuneer, I wish there were mechanics around here that actually know what they are talking about like you do. It seems as though I know more then these idiots around here, which is sad, because im only 20.

 

Mine went to live with god...no problems

Supposedly the cam overlap made the LT4's able to pass emissions without EGR...so anyone running a hot cam or like cam should be all set come inspection time...

I put on a Magnaflow stainless converter and got rid of the EGR system...passed emissions with no problems. I have a cam that is close to the Hot Cam...headers etc...no air...no EGR

 

i got emmisions out here in the suburbs of chicago but with the cam I am going to be running, there's no way in hell i'd be able to pass emmisions anyway so I think i'm just going to try to register the car as a "race car" to waiver emmisions... I only really drive my camaro 1,500 miles a year being that I have a daily driver

 

Did you guys remove the egr tube and valve or just the tube?? just curious
-b