EGR needed?

[steveo]

I still need to use egr valve or I will burn up piston and rings

gm ecms usually add some timing advance when the EGR is active. this is to make up for the loss of power from pumping non-combustible gas into the combustion chamber, and if done properly, you don't lose or gain any power from having the EGR active.

you just need to tune that timing out, or tune out the EGR entirely so the ECM never tries to actuate it.

there's no way you're going to burn holes in a piston, though.

engines with more cam overlap can have their own EGR effect in cruising range too, exhaust and intake gasses mix naturally in the manifold, at which point having the EGR is kinda dumb

[Dirtybob]

....there's no way you're going to burn holes in a piston.... ....engines with more cam overlap can have their own EGR effect....

+1 to the above. With a small (stockish) cam the egr can give a small boost to fuel economy. If your setup is stock and it isn't too much trouble, I would keep the egr. No great loss if you don't though....

[Fast355]

+1 to the above. With a small (stockish) cam the egr can give a small boost to fuel economy. If your setup is stock and it isn't too much trouble, I would keep the egr. No great loss if you don't though....

I would not keep it at all. The carbon buildup in the intake side and ports alone causes efficiency loss and power loss as the engine ages. When I still had the EGR on my Express van with the 350 Vortec I played with the EGR in the tune on the black box. I got 1/2 mpg gain disabling the EGR in the tune. You could feel the EGR turn on just off idle with the stock tune and gave the engine a slight hesitation. With it off it made more torque and accelerated better from a stop with less throttle and less rpms. I even disabled the EGR until 65 mph and saw no benifit even at steady cruising speeds. With the EGR active it always took more throttle to run down the road.