hey guys, so glad to be apart of what is seeming to be a great resource.
my current vehicle is a MB e320 wagon with the coil spring conversion

i love this vehicle so much and she's taken me so many places but I am currently having an issue with her

i went to take it to get the emissions testing done here in Atlanta Georgia. and I got the egr valve code
so I did as instructed
cleaned the egr valve
the pipe connected to the valve itself. And checked the vacuum lines
the metal pipe going to the intake manifold was blocked so much, that the only space was a tiny pin sized hole, which from the forums, seemed to be a common occurence

i cleaned the valve itself and the pipe with carbeurator cleaner.
That did the trick for the pipe

now I want to state that the valve did not create any issues other then emissions for me

in the process of cleaning the pipe out
a copious amount of carb cleaner got into the intake manifold
this caused the engine to not start at all. In fact it would turn over but not start
eventually we got it to start but it ran EXTREMELY ROUGH and would stall on its own. When it did run. We noticed the cat would eventually glow red hot as it's obviously dumping gas into the exhaust and there is obvious pinging in the engine, probably due to misfire

so so the first thing we try is to have the spark plugs swapped

we replaced all the SP and still nothing. Then we thought it could possibly be the Mass Air Flow sensor
so next We replaced that

the maf seems to have not made a difference. We are at a loss for what to do. I depend on the car and I must have made a big mistake somewhere but I've recently checked almost every vacuum line I can find except for the line starched to the brake power boost check valve.

so now I'm at a loss and desperately need ideas to fix the issues
if anyone has any idea
ill take anything at this point

thanks! :'
Davis

 

From what you describe, it sounds as though your carbon clog has moved from intake to exhaust & the catalytic converter has become it's new residence.

 

i will Check the cats next but honestly kind of doubt that
maybe the o2 sensors aren't helping though

 

or the egr valve itself is stuck open/closed.... cleaning it may of de-carboned it however the valve itself could be faulty....

 

You were cleaning out the EGR tube with it still in the intake?

 

My first thought too. Would one (or many) of the valves be blocked open with chunks of crud? An open exhaust valve would send a lot of heat downriver..
A compression test might be revealing.