I was wondering if anyone had a diagram or a good description of all the egr system components inside the engine, since judging by the carbon chunks in the egr pipe I need to take the plenum off to clean wherever the egr passage goes underneath it. Haynes manual just doesn't have enough pictures and I don't want to muck up or miss anything. Any information would be greatly appreciated!!
Forgot to say- it's a V6 automatic

 

your best bet is to start with the throttle body. carbon builds up there fast. take the sensors out and use carb. cleaner or something similar to clean it out. i went out and bought a box of Q tips. then do the same to the plenum. you wont get the plenum to look brand new. as far as the EGR sensor itself, just clean it out with rags or Q tips. dont ever use solvents or cleaners on the sensors. a new EGR valve from GM is over $80 i think.use brushes and other small things with brissals on it to clean the tubes on plenum

 

Redbird,

There are commercially available hose and tube brushes that will flex a bit more to clean the radiused tubes in the runner sets, and get around corners in the intake.

Hoppe's also makes rifle and pistol cleaning kits that work great for this. I save all the worn brushes from cleaning .45s to do oil passages on blocks, or other such tubes. The rifle kit is about the same price as the pistol kit and has extra extensions to reach all the way through the block's oil galleries. You can use the handle and one extension on things like pistols, or EGR passages in intakes. If you only need to clean passages and don't want the full set, just get the hose brushes (if you can find them).

 

Thanks guys for your help, luckily for me in this house finding gun cleaning supplies is easier than finding food. Now to get started!