The air here in the SF bay area has been really bad the last few weeks. The
 stuff is so opaque, I can't see the hills across the bay. Overwhelmed by
 exhaust emission guilt, I crawled underneath the bus yesterday and removed
 the blank-off plate that was blocking my EGR line and took the plug out
 of vacuum line to the EGR valve. Fortunatly, or maybe not, the hardware
 came back to life despite having hibernated since the last smog check.

 This definitly did not make my bus run better. Which is a shame since it
 was running really well with it's revised jetting <Thanks again, David 
 Schwarze>. If now has a mid-range stumble when cold and feels a bit 
 "doggy" whenever the EGR valve is open. It opens at about 25% throttle and
 closes shortly before full throttle.

 Do we have any folks on the list who are knowledgable on the topic of air
 pollution? Is my miserable EGR valve having any effect on the garbage I'm
 breathing? I need someone to tell me that it's worth leaving this thing
 connected or the temptation to disable it again may overwhelm me.

 Gagging and choking in the bay area,

 Dave