Ford 1.5 TDCi EGR delete, oil catch can.

[arisgardelis]

Hello,

 I have a Ford Fiesta Vignale 1.5 TDCi 120hp about a year now and gathered 20k km. I mainly drive the car in highway, doing 300km trips with my cruise control around 100km/h and since I got it I only put good Diesel like VPower Diesel and in general I am not cheap at the fuel. So far the car runs perfect, except I started noticing that the fuel economy is fluctuating on the same road conditions from 2.8 to 5 l/100km. That seemed a bit strange and I started digging around and got into the EGR and catch can rabbit hole. After poking around the induction, I was a bit amazed on how much oil was gathered right into the front of the turbo and the intercooler hoses, so I decided to see what I can do.

About the oil fumes, I have already ordered a good catch can, and I already found on how and where to mount it, so updates on this in the future.

About the EGR delete, now that's a bit of a topic by itself. At first, I thought that the engine was using the same EGR valve like the mid 2000 DV6 1.4/1.6 engines that is put in the Peugeot-Reunault-Ford vehicles, so I just ordered an EGR blocking plate without looking at my engine. That was my first mistake. After receiving the EGR plate and finally looked at my car, I noticed that the valve/exhaust cooler was changed around 2015 and is looking like this:

 

This part is located in such a bad place that I got a bit worried starting poking around the car, removing parts so I can see what's going on, so I started looking around for pictures of the part. Luckily I found the above and some more, but I was more lucky that I found the whole above system in a ridiculous price, so currently I am waiting for the part to arrive, to start looking for the perfect place to put the plate.

Another thing that worried me a bit, was that I found no thread anywhere on the internet from someone who was looking to block the EGR from the specific engine. I found all kinds of DV6 EGR blocking threads, but none for the specific engine that is put in many modern fords. So, does anyone have any suggestion on where to block the EGR?

A first though is to block on the exhaust input to the exhaust cooler (first picture). This seems a good idea, but there may be a problem, since the cooler is held in place by many brackets and screws to the engine. Another thought, is to block the pipe that returns the cool exhaust to the inlet (third picture). Yet another thought, is to block the actuator (picture 3) that opens/closes an internal door. From what I see, it has no electronics on top of it, so by removing the hose, it should stay close.

Some of the above solutions may be feasible, some not, but I would like to know if someone has done it. I also didn't mention a 4th solution, which is the ECU EGR remove, but I don't consider that option, because those new fords came with 8 year warranty and I don't want to mess with the ECU so soon. My main concern is to maintain the engine at it's optimal condition for as long as possible with the least intervention as possible.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.

[Matt92]

I haven’t had a good look into this subject although it is something I’ve thought about. I think the actual valve is electronically operated though, I’ve seen the valve without the cooler listed on eBay (see link below). I don’t know what the vacuum operated valve does, but the hose that goes to it appears to be the one on the air filter box just before the air flow sensor. When I had my air box out to change the battery, I forgot to reconnect the hose, and it didn’t seem to make any difference at all, it was off for a month or so and I only realised when I opened the bonnet.

I have seen where the unit is on the engine though and I wouldn’t fancy trying to remove it.🤯

EGR valve

[arisgardelis]

This an update. I tried to separate the EGR valve from the cooler, but I can tell you that it's something that cannot be done easy. The EGR valve is hold in place by 2 torx screws. The difficult part is to separate the EGR valve from the cooler. Even if I had this EGR-cooler combo on a table, it sits very tight in place and I had to use blades and screwdrivers to remove it with lots of pressure. The unit was from a 12k km engine and there was not much carbon build up, but it was extremely difficult to remove and I also marked the aluminum cooler. I don't know how difficult it may be to remove only the EGR valve when the cooler sits inside the engine and so close to the firewall.

Anyway. The plan was to fit a blanking plate on the inlet of the EGR cooler, in front of the EGR valve, but since the car is new and I need a fast way to get it into the factory condition, I thought to do the following. Since this is a spare EGR valve, I thought to disconnect the cable from the engine mounted EGR valve and put it in the spare EGR valve and just hold the spare EGR somewhere in the space between the engine and the firewall. In this way, the engine mounted EGR stays permanently closed, and the engine will control the spare EGR, tricking the ECU that it controls the mounted EGR valve.

 This should be a fairly easy job and I will try to do it in the following days, taking note of the ECU and engine behavior. If this works, it should be a fairly easy hack to block permanently the EGR, giving also the ability to turn back to factory settings in case of a car inspection.

 I will report back my findings.

[arisgardelis]

I have put the dummy EGR Valve near the engine's EGR Valve, for a couple of months now. The engine is totally different. The turbo spools a lot faster and you can feel the difference. The engine picks up from below, without any empty spots. I also found myself going way faster that I was used to. If I will also fit a catch can, I will save my engine from a lot of future troubles.

About economy, to be honest, I haven't noticed any difference, although it should be. To be honest, I have totally changed my driving style. The engine from the factory is very good, but I found myself going slow, around 100-120kmh on the highway, but now I find myself driving at 140-160kmh. The thing that I found a big difference is when I pass a car. The car picks up from 80-100kmh to 150kmh ridiculous fast and I find myself keeping that speed.

The downside.... The engine light comes on. I reset it with forscan, but after the next start, it comes again. To be honest, I don't mind it at all, except resetting it at least once every 2 months, to see if there's any other code.

Another thing is the placement of the dummy EGR Valve. I wrapped it in cardboard and some packaging material, leaving only the valve open and I placed it upside down right above the engine's EGR valve and zip-tied it. It looks strong, but you should take care of it, or else, it may cut the air-condition pipe that is close from the vibrations.

In general, I don't regret this second "dummy" EGR valve hack and I should have done it when I got the car.

[Davewest]

Hi sorry to come across this thread late after you posted it but info on these is scarce to say the least , the warranty is up in January on my st line 120 fiesta and I was going to have a custom remap and egr delete , is it simply just a case of buying a second egr valve ? Can you show me any pictures of where you mounted exactly 

many thanks