Hi All,

I've taken to bold step (gulp) of deciding to fit an ERG blanking plate to my Focus. It's a 2008 1.8 TDCI. I had it Terracleaned last weekend and find it a whole lot better to drive since, so I'm thinking that a blanking plate will help it stay this way.

I plan to fit a solid plate made from stainless steel after reading various threads on here about it, but I'm wonderng if any of you guys have a recomendation?

There are hundreds avauilable on Ebay, and the more I look the more I'm confused!

Thanks,

Brian.

Ok maybe stupid question but what is terracleaned?? And what led you to have that done??

I have same engine, still under warranty and I'm wanting to know what problems to look for :))

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

Hi All,

I've taken to bold step (gulp) of deciding to fit an ERG blanking plate to my Focus. It's a 2008 1.8 TDCI. I had it Terracleaned last weekend and find it a whole lot better to drive since, so I'm thinking that a blanking plate will help it stay this way.

I plan to fit a solid plate made from stainless steel after reading various threads on here about it, but I'm wonderng if any of you guys have a recomendation?

There are hundreds avauilable on Ebay, and the more I look the more I'm confused!

Thanks,

Brian.

Hi - As long as it is a solid plate (no holes to let gasses through) and is stainless steel and the seller/ supplier claims it fits your car, - thats fine if there is a choice thats not a bad thing - i often had difficulty finding solid, stainless steel plates of a decent thickness for sale at all

Aluminium is soft (so easy to cut/ form and does not blunt tools ) because it is soft it can "seat" well/ forms a gasket - but - it has a low melting point and the EGR system (meaning Exhaust Gas Recirculation) can get very hot - especially in engines where the EGR valve is close to the exhaust - so aluminium plates have been known to burn/ melt through on some cars

Mild Steel is ok but it can rust, again if it is a thin plate as well, it can eventually rust through, - stainless steel does not rust, is very hard, it is more difficult/ expensive to "work", often the plates supplied are thin - eg 2mm if you can find one - go for a 3, 4 or even 5 mm, i once had an 8 and 10mm ones made, it was overkill, and not nessesary to go over 6mm, in my opinion even on a total EGR delete, With the plate going directly on the exhaust manifold

Terracleaning does not clean out the carbon deposits the EGR system has deposited in te inlet manifold, so ideally, you should remove your inlet manifold (and EGRvalve housing and associated components, depending on the engine design) for a thorugh cleaning.

If you have gone to the expense of terracleaning, i recommend you fit an engine breather oil catch tank as well

Terraclean is a process that claims to clean the carbon deposits from your engine with a chemical process.

See terraclean.co.uk for more info.

Brian.

Hi - As long as it is a solid plate (no holes to let gasses through) and is stainless steel and the seller/ supplier claims it fits your car, - thats fine if there is a choice thats not a bad thing - i often had difficulty finding solid, stainless steel plates of a decent thickness for sale at all

Aluminium is soft (so easy to cut/ form and does not blunt tools ) because it is soft it can "seat" well/ forms a gasket - but - it has a low melting point and the EGR system (meaning Exhaust Gas Recirculation) can get very hot - especially in engines where the EGR valve is close to the exhaust - so aluminium plates have been known to burn/ melt through on some cars

Mild Steel is ok but it can rust, again if it is a thin plate as well, it can eventually rust through, - stainless steel does not rust, is very hard, it is more difficult/ expensive to "work", often the plates supplied are thin - eg 2mm if you can find one - go for a 3, 4 or even 5 mm, i once had an 8 and 10mm ones made, it was overkill, and not nessesary to go over 6mm, in my opinion even on a total EGR delete, With the plate going directly on the exhaust manifold

Terracleaning does not clean out the carbon deposits the EGR system has deposited in te inlet manifold, so ideally, you should remove your inlet manifold (and EGRvalve housing and associated components, depending on the engine design) for a thorugh cleaning.

If you have gone to the expense of terracleaning, i recommend you fit an engine breather oil catch tank as well

Thanks FOCA, I'll see what I can find in the way of a plate.

Interesting what you say about Terraclean as it claims to clean the ERG, although I'm not for a minute doubting what you say.

When I have a spare day off I'll look at taking off the inlet manifold and giving it a clean.

Thanks for your advice.

Brian.

One other thing I forgot to ask was that I plan just to loosen the bolts in the pipe to The ERG and slip in then re tighten them.

I assume I don't need to put in any extra gaskets?

Unless anyone has anything bad to say about the slip in ones id go for one of those.

I had the one with normal holes which required taking the pipe off and fitting - it was pretty awkward to maneuver the pipe back into place!

and i just reused the old soft metal gasket on one side. I just put it in as a 'why not' type of thing - i cant see it being too important that it has a gasket

Well I've bought the slotted one, and plan to fit it at the weekend. I think from looking at it I might be able to slacken the pipe bolts off and slip the plate in without removing the scuttle. However, if I need to remove it I will.

I've also bought a fault code reader in anticipating of the EML coming on!

I'll stick a post up once fitted with my findings.