p0401 egr code, rough idle, smoke

[kene04]

Last night I made a 40 minute drive, and about 30 minutes through, the cel came on. Pulled out my handy lil scanner and read the code, a p0401 egr insufficient flow. I figured it's not a big deal. I let the car run for a bit and noticed a lob to my exhaust, almost like i'd put really wicked cams in it. But the car drives fine. This morning, I start the car up, and it almost died. Then it shot up to 2500 rpms and back down to 1000 until it warmed up. I just went out and tried it again, after finding that I had a leak in one of the hoses, going from egr to intake. almost died, shot up to 2500, dropped down to about 400 and then back up. I let it start running again, noticed an insane amount of white smoke. Then i can hear the car rev itself up to about 3500 and hold for a second then drops down to 1000. When i rev it a little bit (less than 2000) it'll hold where i left it at, drop, go back up and then slowly ease its way back down. I had this code appear a few weeks ago too, cleared it and it just now came back. When the car does this, I can hear a huge air leak coming from right around the intake/egr. Help !?

 

[SuperSleeper]

Sounds like a vacuum leak to me. Pressure test it, and you'll likely find something losing all your vacuum. Good luck.

 

[kene04]

Today before work, I'm going to clean the EGR valve and make sure there's not some build up. Tomorrow, the new EGR gasket will be in, so I'll put it on.

 

[kene04]

Pulled the EGR valve and cleaned it, took a few days longer than I meant for it to, advance was slow getting the new gasket. Just installed everything again, still runs like crap with more smoke coming out of the exhaust, plus it runs higher when I let it idle. Oh lordy, I'm about to give up on this thing . Help?

 

[kene04]

Sorry I don't have a pressure tester, and don't know anyone who has one.

 

[kene04]

Forgot to clarify, smoke from exhaust comes from tip and from right behind the header. Do you think it could be a blown exhaust gasket? Or maybe it's loose. I just read that it would make my lifters sound worse, which is problem that has been getting progressively worse.