BEW intake manifold and EGR cooler

bigjake

Veteran Member
Joined
May 7, 2015
Location
Charlottesville, VA
TDI
2005 Jetta MKIV, 1.9 BEW with 09A
Hey all,

Here in the next few weeks, I plan on tearing apart my engine to clean my nasty intake manifold. My first question is about the small butterfly valves in the manifold. I've heard there's a risk that they can break off and get ingested into the motor. I was curious as to how to remove these. Methods, tools, etc. I also would like to know, does their removal affect performance any? I'm assuming not, but figured I'd ask.

When that's all done and put back together, I plan to address my EGR cooler. Awhile ago I discovered my car was a victim of the botched recall when I found my lower pipe had a crack. I deleted only the lower pipe by placing blanking plates on the exhaust manifold port and on the port on the bottom of the cooler. While the exhaust leak under the hood is gone, my car is struggling to stay at operating temperature outside of the summer months. It's running cold and is killing my fuel economy. I believe this is due to the inoperable EGR. I intend to get a new pipe, reinstall all the hardware and delete the EGR electronically. I've read the electronic deletes will program the computer to keep the EGR valve closed, but open it whenever the car falls below operating temperature. Does anyone know the official term for this delete and someone who can do it? Also, I do not want my new lower EGR pipe to crack. I've read on here that one has to align the cooler to prevent this. How do I go about properly aligning the cooler?

-Jake
 

gforce1108

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Location
Newburgh, NY
TDI
04 Jetta GLS BEW, 14 Audi A7 V6 TDI, 13 Porsche Cayenne V6 TDI
You are looking for dynamic EGR. I also have problems with low coolant temps after deleting my EGR (also due to the dealer screw up). I believe people rip the butterflies off the manifold, leaving the rod, etc in place. I went PD150 manifold to clean things up - I don't think dynamic EGR existed back then and I wasn't going to buy the replacement flex tube.

There is a pdf posted here on how to properly align the EGR cooler to ensure it won't break again (recall procedure). I'll see if I can find it
 

bigjake

Veteran Member
Joined
May 7, 2015
Location
Charlottesville, VA
TDI
2005 Jetta MKIV, 1.9 BEW with 09A

gforce1108

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Location
Newburgh, NY
TDI
04 Jetta GLS BEW, 14 Audi A7 V6 TDI, 13 Porsche Cayenne V6 TDI
Thanks, man! I looked through it. Page 10, part 12...I don't believe I've seen that bracket on my EGR. I'll have to double check, but that would probably explain a lot if it's missing, lol.
So I can literally "rip" the butterflies out of the IM? Are they really that flimsy?
From what I saw, yes. I believe the person who first posted used needle nose pliers to rip them out. And since they have been injected into engines, they must come off fairly easy! I wasn't aware of that problem when I swapped to the PD150 manifold. I also had most of the brackets missing along with some mounting screws.
 

mjydrafter

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
Location
dsm, ia
TDI
2004 Jetta Wagon
The Flaps, grab them with a vise grip and give them a sharp twist. They pop right off. Mine did anyway.
 

coalminer16

Top Post Dawg
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Location
Central Wisconsin
TDI
Golf 2004
They are just tack welded on. I tapped the hole for the shaft and removed those as well as the plastic bushings and threaded a bolt in - sealed the bolt too and plugged the vac booster that ran the butterflies.
 

bigjake

Veteran Member
Joined
May 7, 2015
Location
Charlottesville, VA
TDI
2005 Jetta MKIV, 1.9 BEW with 09A
Hey guys, I finally got around to doing this. From the PDF file above, it looks like I was missing bolt number 10 on page 10, which looks like it mounts the bracket to either the manifold or the block. That seems to explain my cracked lower pipe. I left the cooler off for now and bypassed the coolant hoses with plumbing elbows.

The manifold was definitely dirty and greasy at the inlets with a little bit of crud, but didn't appear gummed up enough to look like it would hinder performance. I cleaned it using carburetor cleaner and a pressure washer. I also popped off the four butterflies. They themselves weren't flimsy, but they were sort of crimped onto that shaft. A firm pop of the butterflies with needle-nosed pliers took them right off.

After reassembling everything, I test drove it and didn't notice any performance gain which didn't surprise me, given how not clogged it was. Maybe I'll see a slight fuel economy gain but I need to drive out a tank first.

Like I mentioned earlier, I intend to get my EGR functional again in terms of hardware. I plan to do a software delete so my valve stays closed unless the engine falls below operating temperature. My only immediate concern is that, when I reinstall the cooler and add the missing bracket bolt, with my luck, a new $100 lower pipe will crack anyway within a few thousand miles. Does anyone know of any aftermarket lower pipes for purchase that are reinforced and won't crack, even if the cooler is slightly misaligned? Like, one made out of stainless steel or something.
 
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