Thought I'd share my EGR adventure. Trying to track down my annoying backfire I've replaced or cleaned up a bunch of stuff and folks in here have helped me look at things I've never considered or even known about. So I finally got around to getting the EGR valve off the block and having a look. We'll, when compared to other images on the web, wowser! It was absolutely clotted with carbon in the main square shaped hole and I mean I couldnt tell if it was supposed to be a hole or was simply a black rubber grommet. It was 100% rock hard carbon all the way. So I took a tiny flat driver and dug and scratched it out for a good hour. Then dosed it with brake cleaner, left it alone and then went back and did it all again. So much crap came out. Anyway, I polished it up, scrubbed the valve bit and lubed it and put the metal gaskets back in place. I noticed that the gaskets almost totally covered the square shaped hole in the valve which looked wrong and there was a metal plate which had a 5mm hole where the hole is which didn't make sense. I'm thinking some PO ordered a replacement gasket and fitted the wrong one with a tiny hole. So I drilled that out wider and bolted everything back together. I don't want to jinx it but the backfire disappeared instantly and the Jeep seems to have a healthier engine and exhaust tone. So maybe it was my cruddy egr all the time. Interested to know if anyone else has done this or if a clogged egr could cause serious backfires? Thanks all
