Did the 1986 e250 5.8 come standard with an exhaust brake ? Thank you, Marty

 

I have maintained many vehicles with an exhaust brake, but they were all diesel.

 

Wondering if it was an afterthought for someone. Also the butterfly may have gone down the pipe if that is possible.

 

The housing for the exhaust brake is cast iron and slightly larger than the roughly 2 in diameter pipe. If the butterfly got loose in there , I suppose it is possible to produce a restriction. That butterfly is riveted to a shaft and just because I have never seen one come off does not mean it can't happen.
There must be a reason we are on this subject, care to tell us ?

 

It's my brother's van which we are now sharing. The sputtering, rough low speed / idling along with very rich smell and occasional backfiring on deceleration got me poking around. He mentioned something coming off of the exhaust manifold that I never understood. I was told that it was indeed an exhaust brake. The shaft of said brake was not attached to the vacuum actuator and had worked its way out substantially. I wired it back to what I imagined would be "open" and this morning there was a noticeable change. With this new information the plan is to have it removed or at least efficiently disabled. I'm not keen on on fiddling with it seeing as it is currently all we have and it drives.

 

Can you tell me if your vehicle has a carburetor or is it fuel injected ?

Different fuel systems can have different reasons for backfiring on deceleration.

There is something to be said for , "If it works don't fix it ".

 

Holley 4 barrel. Which is 6-8 months old.

 

Do you know what carb was on the vehicle before you installed the Holly ?

Do you know if the air pump and other emission components are still on and working ? Were they disabled/ removed ?

If all was original, no problem, but if altered,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,don't know what we have until you let me know.

 

Don't know what the original carb was but we replaced what we received with another new Holley. I will look into the air pump. There's a lot of kooky wires and vacuum lines some of which appear to be from years of tinkering. The wiring of faulty exhaust brake has resulted in much smoother everything. So, fingers crossed until my new job starts throwing $$$ at me.
Thank you for all the tips and info. so far !
Marty

 

You might be surprised to find the engines ran quite well in spite of all the emission parts. Most folks just either disabled or removed them instead of trying to learn about them. They all had a purpose and did their job when maintained like everything else. One of the components was a diverter valve that prevented backfire when working correctly. So ,,,,there is hope,lol.