Hi, got a few questions about EGR, emissions tests, and tuning, I'll start with the basic car description (where it's at now):

1999 WS6 Trans Am, 6-speed, 85k miles. Engine internals are all stock, engine has never had any issues to date (no oil leaks, no ses codes, no unusual knocks/pings, etc).
Exhaust is still completely stock.
Intake is the stock cold-air hood w/ K&N FIPK, egr tube cut, throttle body coolant bypassed, no MAF screen.
Skip-shift elim, 160 thermo, and HPP3 tuning.
Some good suspension/body mods too, but not really relevant for this post.

I'm just now going through a major round of cleaning/tune-up over the past few weeks. Seafoamed everything (remarkably little smoke, I think my driving and the occasional bottle of gas additive has been keeping it pretty clean), got some new NGK TR55 plugs, new fuel filter, new pcv, etc.

What I've been wanting to do is stop the oil and exhaust crap that gets into my intake via the PCV and the EGR, respectively. I made a little custom version of the PCV mod by mounting it vertical and putting a fuel filter in the line, but I'm not very pleased with the quality of it, and not sure that the fuel filter isn't restricting the PCV flow when it gets oily.

I found a nice PCV catch can, but it mounts to the cylinder head in the same place as the stock EGR mount (which I wanted to kill anyways)... So now I'm considering blocking off and physically removing the EGR (but leaving AIR as I still have cats, etc) and disabling the SES codes, and that'll make room for the nice PCV catch can.

I live in Houston, TX, so I am subject to emissions tests. I have some friends at a couple of shops that do inspections, and I'm sure if the OBDII emissions scan says everything is kosher, they'll be willing to be pretty blind on the visual inspection under the hood.

Obviously, I can't delete the EGR myself with just my little HPP3. I could get ls1edit or something similar, but given how mild this engine's upgrades are, I really don't feel like I need to do a ton of custom tuning, so it seems like a waste to get ls1edit just to end up loading some standard tune "optimized for good intake and high octane fuel" settings.

So I guess my questions are:

1) Can I physically delete the EGR system, and do something (what exactly in technical terms?) to the PCM so that it doesn't throw a ses light, and also doesn't cause a problem on the emissions test scan?

2) Any recommendations for the cheapest and/or best route to get the above EGR fixups into my PCM plus some mild optimization for the 160 thermo and good intake and fuel? Is there a different handheld that will get me there? Or am I better off just buying ls1edit and downloading some standard tuning someone has posted? Or shipping my PCM to someone and letting them handle it? etc..

Thanks for any help,
-- Brandon

 

I guess I wouldn't mind deleting the AIR too, if it can also be prevented from messing up the OBDII emissions testing, now that I've read more about it. Seems most of the kits have the blockoff plates for both EGR and AIR anyways.

 

Just FYI if anyone else finds this in a search, the best info I was able to scrounge up has lead me to believe my best bet is to revert the HPP3 tuning to stock, physically delete the AIR and EGR, and get a DiabloSport Predator. I can use their stockish performance tune and use it to delete the EGR and AIR codes permanently. (And then of course with the EGR gone I'll have room for my PCV catch can (I got the one from Elite Engineering), so no more oil or exhaust junk getting into the intake).

 

Go to G-force or MTI and have them delete the codes for you. They might charge $75. They might do it for free too, cuz it only takes 2 minutes.