Consequences of disabling EGR?

[fjobsessor]

I've finally just diagnosed that something beyond the EGR modulator causes dead acceleration and a hissing sound that sounds a lot like a vacuum leak at higher RPM after the rig is warmed up. These symptoms combined has made driving the rig a challenge and very annoying.

So at this point I figure I have a few of choices:

1. Source and replace most of the EGR system (valve, cooler, pipes, etc.). This would keep the rig mostly original (145K miles) and smog intact.
2. De-smog. I've held off doing this because I live in WA close to Portland, OR and if I ever decide to sell it will be more of a challenge.
3. Leave as-is for now and keep the EGR valve disabled until I decide to do 1 or 2 assuming there's no harm in doing so.

My question for you all: Is there any harm in disabling EGR by disconnecting the hose from the modulator to the EGR valve? In my limited testing, doing so makes the vacuum hissing go away and seems to fix the acceleration problem too.

 

[OSS]

On a normal new engine, disabling the EGR valve will cause the engine to knock (bad) at certain RPMs & load. It’s totally unusable.
But on older engines with low compression, many guys have reported that their engine doesn’t knock- so try it and see.
If it does knock a little, you can try moving the inside vacuum hose on the distributor to the outside vacuum actuator and then plug the vac hose that connected to it. See if that works.
You’ll lose high altitude compensation though.

 

[fjobsessor]

On a normal new engine, disabling the EGR valve will cause the engine to knock (bad) at certain RPMs & load. It’s totally unusable.
But on older engines with low compression, many guys have reported that their engine doesn’t knock- so try it and see.
If it does knock a little, you can try moving the inside vacuum hose on the distributor to the outside vacuum actuator and then plug the vac hose that connected to it. See if that works.
You’ll lose high altitude compensation though.

Thanks for the reply. I took her out for a drive including big hills (I live on a mountain) and what a difference! No bogging down, hesitation or vacuum/ping noises. I’m going to leave the EGR disabled and eventually de-smog.