It mounts under the front of the intake manifold. I'm considering removing it and re-routing my water lines. But what is it called and what is its purpose?

That's your idle air controller, I believe. It's integrated in the upper intake plenum (or throttle body? I forget) on the late model 22REs, just switch plenums.

That is the idle air control valve. It uses the coolant temp to determine if the idle should be raised or not when the engine is cold. When the coolant is cold, the vacuum line that goes the the underside of the throttle body will open the throttle body a little bit to allow more air to enter the cylinders.. That will allow the idle to be raised when the engine is cold. The plug on the back of it goes to the ECU and tells the ECU to give the engine a little bit more gas so the engine doesn't run too lean.

I wouldn't get rid of it. It's a necessary part to have.

Thanks guys. I took your advice SV, and left it installed.

Good call! Your engine will still start and run when cold without it but it won't run as good when cold and won't warm up as fast. It doesn't reduce any performance to keep it so there really isn't any real good reason to delete it.

Makes sense. I'm glad you were able to explain its function. Otherwise, it was gonna get gone!

It can get gone, or at least moved. Look up the late-model plenum swap.

Got a link for this swap? I'm curious what the benefit would be.

Here's the one I bookmarked, but they're all over: Siesta Off Road: Tech - Late Model 22re Throttle Body Swap

Lots of guys claim a performance boost with the straighter intake - I call bullpucky on that. But it does eliminate the IACV with a system that is supposed to be more reliable and definitely removes a bit of clutter from under the plenum, leading to easier access under there. I couldn't find a late-model plenum quick enough when I was doing my head or I would have swapped it out then.

Thanks Kid. I'm definitely interested in looking into that swap. As for right now, I'm just trying to get what I have put back together and running.

If it has better airflow then it will increase the power. How much...? Who knows, maybe a pony or two. But with a gutless 22re, every bit of power counts. As long as it's a cheap mod then I guess it could be justifiable. Just be careful, once you start on the road to adding power to the 22re you'll never stop. Next thing you know you'll be like me and have 3k into an engine and it's still a 22re that doesn't put out much power. I had about 3k into mine that still had less than 150hp.

If you ask me, I would suggest to just delete the EGR and leave the rest stock. The only reason I say to delete the EGR is for simplicity. The less moving parts under the hood means more reliability. If I had to do it again, I would have done nothing more than a mild cam and the street rv head.

I don't believe it has better airflow, though. The intake is in one spot and the throttle body is in another, and the air must bend to get from one to the other. Straighten out one bend and you're forced to make another bend sharper. I'm no hydrodynamic engineer, but I bet that actually hurts airflow. Probably not enough to matter either way, but if/when I swap my plenum, it'll be to clean up the engine bay, not for power gains.

I wish I could delete my EGR, but we have strict emissions to pass here.

Move to Colorado! Awesome wheeling and no emissions in El Paso County.

Would I have to buy a second gen to live in El Paso county? I have standards to maintain, you know.

Haha... funny! I did have a 1st gen for a while ya know, it did some pretty good wheeling here.