New Owner of a 92 SE-R

[Peter Serwe]

Hi all,

I've been lurking on the list a bit for the last few weeks, since I
bought this car (and fell in love with it the moment I slid into the
seat) and boy would I like to throw in a turbo kit, but that probably
won't happen for a couple years at least (building a house).

The car has about 130k, and the lower end and head (minus intake/exhaust
stuff) has been swapped out, since the previous owner threw a rod
through the block, and then let the car sit outside for a year, dead as
a doornail.

The mechanic who swapped the motor sold me the car, the new lower end
has about 45k on it, allegedly.

The swap motor was a non-EGR version (Japanese?), and he swapped the
intake/exhaust off the old head.

I'm having those stupid EGR problems.  (Low rpm stalling, etc) The BPT
passage (is that what it's called?) - the approx 3/4" tube that runs
from the exhaust manifold to the intake manifold, and has the approx 9"
multi-bent tube that feeds the BPT valve, which is what seems to be dead
blocked.

I've tried de-carbonizer, throttlebody/intake cleaner, waiting for 10-60
minutes, and reaming it out with the biggest wire I can snake through
there ... nothing frees the passage.  The BPT is probably dead, the EGR
valve may be dead, but like the BPT, I'm not getting any exhaust
pressure to make the BPT valve give vacuum to the EGR (this is what
triggers the EGR valve, right? :P) I don't have any exhaust pressure to
speak of, so I can't really tell.  I've read, and gone through the FAQ
items I saw about it, it's how I tested the problem, and tried to
resolve it, but no luck.

A veritable multitude of questions ... can I snake the BPT passage out,
without too much hassle?  How much play is there in that tube, anyone
ever had to take it off to clean it?  Is there some sort of easier way
to fix it?

A couple of guys I've talked to have suggested putting mechanic's wire
in a drill, and turning it on low speed to clear it, but I'm wondering
if that will hurt something if I just run it through?  I've got the
gasket already to put it back, but I don't want to break the thing to
fix it... :)  Or should I just take the whole EGR thing off.  The car
likes to buck in anything under 3k, I like to drive it over 3k, but the
reality is, I need the low-rpms to work better, and I want the engine to
run smoother.  I have the timing set at 17 deg BTC, as per some
suggestions I saw around here, and the car is quite fun.  Unlike Mike
Peterson, I see no reason to sell my new toy, although, it's not in the
best shape.

I did the front motor mount already, that's pretty much gotten rid of
the massive vibration on right-front spring compression (another gem
gleaned from reading this great list :P).  Once the EGR thing is
resolved, I'd like to beef the thing up a bit, it's in semi-hard shape,
and _dead_ stock.   Anyone with any of the cheap perf upgrades to get
rid of, feel free to send me a line :)

The EGR Valve is probably dead, but I did clean it, and it still doesn't
move when you rev the car, it's getting no vacuum from the BPT.  I don't
know what I should do from here, it's my daily driver right now, so I
don't really wanna pull it apart right now, next winter, I'll have a big
garage built, and I can do just about anything then.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions, sorry to be so long-winded, but
this has been building for weeks :P

Pete
--
Peter Serwe <peter@easytree.net>
Cheaper, Faster, Better, pick any two.
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