vacuum lines/canister help

[86Scotty]

I recently bought a 95 E350 with low miles but rust underneath. I've dealt with the rust and the van is now in pretty good shape but it only took 25k for the northern winters or the engine heat to eat the vacuum lines by the right side manifold. My questions are, what are these lines for? Are they necessary? Should I cap them or replace them? What the heck is the canister for? The canister itself is in pretty good shape, but I'm not sure if I need any of this or should I just remove it. Could it be causing me to lose fuel mileage? Yeah, I know, it's a 460. Starting it up costs me fuel mileage. I have removed the air pump belt and pulley. Oh, this is a 95 E350 460 (7.5l) gas. Thanks!

 

[carringb]

The vacuum canister is an EPA requirement, to capture gasoline vapors. I don't know of any programmer that will allow you to remove the system and ignore the codes.

It can cause worse fuel economy because of the vacuum leak. Lack of vacuum will cause your fuel pressure regulator to malfunction, and to compensate the PCM holds the injectors open longer, so at light load it will run rich while it may run lean under heavy load since the fuel pressure may not be coming up fully.

Capping them would better than what you have now (no evap system and a huge vacuum leak) but it will probably throw a code

 

[86Scotty]

Thanks carringb. I thought you might know, and I thought someone would probably say just that. The reason I wasn't sure was that I only get a CEL intermittently. When I have scanned I get an egr fault. I don't really understand emissions, though I so understand vacuum a vacuum system, well, somewhat. Does that mean anything to you? I removed my air pump belt and pulley, and wasn't sure if that itself would cause vacuum/cel issues. The system and hoses are intact, but the pump is no longer working.

 

[carringb]

EGR valve is also controlled by vacuum, so your large vacuum leak could cause the EGR valve to throw a code too.

Smog pump should not affect vacuum or EGR. It's really just diluting your exhaust just enough to pass the emissions standards at the time (which were all written in PPM). Literally a dirty way to meet the letter of the law, since it puts the same mass of pollutants into the air whether its diluted or not.