i’m attempting to deal with all of the vacuum garbage on my 85 305 TPI. previous owners broke the vacuum lines on the EGR solenoid and i have no idea how to replace them.

i’ve seen people construct their own EGR solenoids but i really just don’t want to do that.

i’d like to hear the pros and cons of just deleting the valve and solenoid. my state does not require emissions testing for cars that old so i don’t care about that. i am aware that if i delete the EGR stuff, i am supposed to tune the computer but i don't have the equipment for that.

if i do delete the EGR valve, what other upgrades should i do alongside it?

 

To repair the broken plastic lines you can use vacuum line to splice it back together depending on where its broken and if you can sleeve it over, very simple and cost effective. Just be sure the line fits nice and snug over the plastic lines which do get brittle with age and look up a picture of how everything is routed if missing.

There really is no performance gain from deleting EGR and SMOG but it will clean up the engine bay. To delete it all is pretty simple, get a block off plate and remove the EGR solenoid and valve etc and seriously consider even a basic mail in tune from Tuned Performance, even on a 305 it will wake the car up a bit, run cooler and feel more responsive. I would also consider deleting all the SMOG/AIR pump and lines on the manifolds etc as well and have that disabled in the new tune, that really cleans up the engine bay, keep in mind that you may be able to sell some of that stuff to ppl in states where they are still tested as those parts can be hard to come by. With the SMOG stuff deleted it makes working in the engine bay a lot easier, especially spark plug access.

As for some stuff to consider while you're in there it would be great time to replace the injectors if original/or have them cleaned, deep clean throttle body, delete cold start injector (simple block off kit and need tuning out in new tune, they can be troublesome and no longer made new), replace the intake gasket if leaky or at the least re-torque and apply thread sealer on center intake bolts if seeping oil etc, new TPI gasket set from fel-pro.

Also, while its apart I would consider doing the throttle body coolant bypass as long as the car won't be driven in winter (not much of a performance gain but cleans up the engine bay some, makes TB removal easier, and in theory allows cooler air into engine and is very easy to do with lots of threads covering its pros and cons) and switch to a 180 thermostat to help the car run a little cooler, you may be able to get by with a 170 depending on if your location but you don't want it running too cold.

How much you do depends on how far you tear the TPI down, with the right set of tools this could be as simple as pulling the plenum/TB and carefully removing EGR with runners in place or taking it all apart down to the intake manifold...there is a helpful guide on how to replace injectors in the how to section here as well. If you replace injectors buy quality as its labor intensive, South Bay has good deals on Bosch 3s or Delphi which seem to be the best for our cars with some saying that a tune is needed to offset injector voltage on the Bosch 3 while the Delphi are drop in but cost more $.

 

Just remove all that crap.

 

why delete the cold start injector? just curious, i’m looking at egr block off plates right now and they sell kits with the cold start injector block off as well.

 

It’s a pretty common mod to do when deleting EGR and an ideal time to do it if you are getting a new tune to delete emissions as it can all be done at once.

The cold start injector is known to leak sometimes which can cause problems starting etc. or other issues associated with a leaky injector. Also, the part hasn’t been produced for quite awhile so only used options are available and they are not cheap. They can be rebuilt IIRC but would need to be done by a fuel injector shop.

Most ppl delete them also because if you get a new tune they can add the ‘89 cold start sequence that will start the car up slightly faster and make the cold start injector pointless. I look at it as replacing a common fail point in our early fuel injection system.