October 20 2021


One of my more ambitious and successful body restorations.
It's my 2003 Ford Ranger.

I also did a successful bypass of the egr valve on 
my 1995 Ranger; saving myself a $1200 bill for egr 
and exhaust manifold replacement.

It's like having two new trucks again.


Seven pictures:





















I've fallen in love with my trucks all over again.


I might yet convert the 1987 Ranger in the background
(with severe engine issues) to electric.  It would be 
a simple do-it-myself project resulting in a simple 
and dependable residential vehicle.  It all takes
time and money.


Here's the egr valve bypass story and picture:

(from one of my web pages)


Perhaps this description of my successful egr bypass 
on my 1995 Ford Ranger will apply adequately to your 
vehicle.

For someone (like me) who drives his truck only 
occasionally, the following bypasses are not 
necessarily poor environmental choices.  I drive 
my truck less than 1,000 miles per year.  Consider 
the environmental impact of producing a new truck.

My rusty egr valve assembly fell apart (or "blew up" 
to quote my mechanic).  My mechanic suspected that 
my catalytic converter might be plugged up and 
perhaps contributed to my egr valve's demise.

Out of prudence, I bypassed my catalytic converter 
prior to bypassing my egr valve.

I have no photos from before the egr bypass, 
but below you'll see the photo taken after the 
egr bypass.


Refer to this photo while reading the text 
below the photo.





This was almost entirely guess-work.  I could hardly
believe it when it actually worked perfectly.


The procedure:


"A" is the metal pipe whose top was, and still is, 
slid into the intake manifold.  That pipe has now 
been cut near its low end and plugged with epoxy 
plumber's putty.  Shove plenty of putty into it 
as deep as you can.

Since I left what's left of the egr assembly in 
place, I used it as a brace to hold pipe "A" in 
place; otherwise pipe "A" would slip down and 
out of the intake manifold.  In other words, 
the top portion of pipe "A" (which has been 
plugged at its low end) is held in place by 
the bottom portion of pipe "A".  (The bottom 
portion of pipe "A" is still attached to the 
defunct egr assembly.)  You'll see that I used 
epoxy plumber's putty (with some washers filling 
the space left by the saw cut) as my crude splint.  
I think you'll find a way to make a cleaner 
splint/brace.

And note that even though I left the remains of 
the egr assembly in place, it is not connected 
to anything.

-----

Smooth rubber tubes "B" and "C" are left 
connected to the rectangular gizmo near 
the top of the engine.

Rubber tube "B" has the smaller diameter 
of those two smooth rubber tubes.  Its low 
end is now connected to the low end of the 
ribbed rubber tube "D" which remains connected 
at its top to some gizmo "E".  Both those 
tubes (B and D) were initially connected 
(at their low ends) to some area of the 
egr assembly.

-----

Tube "C" (the fatter smooth rubber tube) 
was initially connected at its low end to 
a small metal tube coming out of the large 
egr metal pipe "F".  Tube "C" is now plugged 
with a bolt.  The two short yellow lines in 
the photo show where tube "C" was cut.  
(Gravity is causing the low end of tube "C" 
to dangle lower than before it was cut.)

-----

Large nut "G" is what the metal pipe "F" from 
the egr assembly had been attached to before 
I broke the pipe off from that nut.  
It encases the pipe coming from the exhaust, 
just below the exhaust manifold.  It has now 
been plugged with epoxy plumber's putty.  
Shove plenty of putty into it as deep as 
you can.  (Alternatively, you could saw 
through pipe "F" without breaking it off 
from nut "G", and then just plug the portion 
of the pipe leading to the nut "G".)  My saw 
cut of the metal pipe "F" is indicated by the 
short orange line on the photograph.

-----

Leave all electical connectors plugged in.

Before starting your engine, disconnect the 
negative terminal of your battery and leave 
it disconnected for at least five minutes.  
That will allow your truck's computer to 
reprogram itself to accomodate the new 
configuration once the engine is started.  
It might take fifteen minutes of driving 
for the computer to fully adjust.




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