engine gasping for air after egr cleaning

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all the best!

 

Intake leak is a possibility. You disturb a bunch of intake connections in this process, some have gaskets. The connections are all downstream of the mass airflow sensor, so any air that gets sucked in is 'unmetered' and the ECM does not know to correct the fuel/air ratio. Ghastly misfiring results.

Just throwing that on the heap of things to investigate, as it's a known likely suspect.

As for the EGR valve not opening correctly, if this racket is happening at idle, there should be no EGR then. It might be more on point to wonder if the valve is closing completely.

It's easy to make the valve reassembly sound more complicated than it is. You spin the rotor down on the threads of the shaft as far as you can and hold it there. You try to hold it there as long as you can while you put the stator/cover back on, but you have to let go eventually because you're not leaving your finger in there for good, and the spring under the rotor probably pushes it back up some.

That means as you push the stator/cover the rest of the way on and tighten the screws, probably the valve pintle got pushed a little bit open, meaning the valve isn't completely closed. That's no big deal, in fact it is a favor, because it gives you the chance to push the pintle back in with your thumb, making sure it moves smoothly. (You will hear/feel a little whirr from inside, because pushing the pintle in makes the rotor have to spin.)

That's not something you have to do, but it gives you a chance to find out if you got something cockeyed and it's somehow jammed and won't move.

As long as it's not jammed and it can move, it doesn't really matter whether it's open or not when you put it back on the car, because the first thing the ECM will say when you start up the car will be "hmm, closed, where is closed? ... spin spin spin ... ah, yes, there it is."

Edit: I should probably clarify that: the valve doesn't have a position sensor. So the ECM can't actually find "closed" and confirm it is there. But it knows the valve is capable of moving about 110 steps from full closed to full open. So the ECM just sends it 110 or more step commands in the 'close' direction, then says "there, I'm pretty sure it's closed now." And it will be right, of course, unless something is cockeyed and jammed and won't move.

 

I did this procedure with a friend and we had a VERY rough startup. Then we restarted and it was fine and the car’s running great.

If that doesn’t do it, check the electrical connectors, like the MAP, MAF and the throttle body connector. Be sure they’re clicked completely into place.

 

It has to go through a cycle of roughness after a cleaning

 

Did you remove and thoroughly clean the intake manifold? It has Exhaust Gas Recirculation passages, small ones at each port, which are particularly clog-prone.

 

So the same thing happened to me today. I finally finished the EGR cleaning, I also replaced my spark plugs and coils. At first sounded okay, then quickly turned into the death rattles, and I quickly shut her off. I decided to turn it back on with the heater up, and eventually she started sounding nice. I had some coolant loss during the cleaning, so I think it just took a while for that to work through the system. She's running great now.

 

What’s the miles?