I need help with my 2001 dodge grand caravan. Its blowing black smoke from
the exhaust and its sputtering really bad. It will drive but it drives terribly and
only goes 20 mph. Please help. This is my only way of going. I've had egr
valave replaced ,new fuel filter, caddilaic converter removed . I'm nearly out of
money and don't know where to turn or who to ask. Drove it for 45 minutes. By far not a mechanic but can do small things and had help replacing the fuel filter and egr valve. Anything will help I've had it hooked to computer it only showed code to basically replace egr valve
yesterday thought it was fixed after replacing egr valve then on way home its
started again

 

Do you know the exact code? Did you replace the converter or did you just remove it? Lots of miles? If it is egr related, maybe plugged passages to the egr. But if you have no catalytic converter, that will affect the egr performance and you should have other codes unless you have fiddled with the O2 sensor after the cat. Black smoke is unburned gas. Bad spark plugs, bad coil, bad wires, bad injectors will do that. What happened before this happened? Timing belt wrong will also do this. Get the active and pending codes with a code reader for free at autozone or advance auto parts. You can also get active codes by inserting the key, turn the key to "on", then "off" then "on" then "off" then "on" and wait. It will tell you active codes in your odometer. Need some history on this vehicle, it will help with answers.

 

Active code is as of last night from auto zone was p0401, over 200k had converter removed and replaced with straight pipe it was really stopped up with gunk I haven't messed with 0 2 sensor I'm def not a mechanic just trying to get my wife s van going

 

Alternator went out replaced it then about a week after that all this starting happening

 

Done test codes that came up were p 1684 p0508 p0403 p0135

 

Cat would throw a CEL, but won't cause his issues, trust me ran many a dodge catless, egr deleted, etc. At worst the CEL comes on, most of the time nothing.
Black smoke is unburned gas I agree. Talking issues like regulator, injectors, spark issues, ecu issues, etc.