2001 Windstar (3.8) IMRC issues/questions

[mjdoyle]

I've got a '01 Windstar that I'm looking to get rid of - it been sitting in my driveway for a few months. Prior to replacing the battery (and wiping out the check engine light) there was an IMRC related error. I did some digging and found the clips had, in fact, failed. OK - so I bought some clips and I was going to replace and I notice the following:

1. The front butterfly seems to pivot still.
2. The rear butterfly seems "stuck"

Anyway a few questions.

1. Since none of the "arms" of the IMRC are attached to the buttterfly can I just leave them off and not worry about a check engine light will go on? IOW is there some other sensor on the engine that could detect that the butterfly has moved to teh high RPM position when the IMRC "activated" the butterfly?
2. I've left the front butterfly in the (I assume) low RPM position...since the van rarely goes over 3K will there be any long term issues?
3. How would I go about "unsticking" the back butterfly value w/o pulling the intake manifold? Would a good treatment using somehting like Seafoam potentially work?

The van passed inspection but it didnt register anything on teh emissions (since the battery wiped out teh data apparently) so I need to drive some miles to populate teh computer w/ some data to pass emissions. The Ford tech stated I needed about 300 miles to do that. Is that correct? Ideally I want to get enough data to pass the test...if I dont have to burn hours int eh van all the better. thanks

[wiswind]

I am not familiar with the '99 and newer IMRC......the '96 through '98 used a vaccum driven actuator for each bank.....whereas, I think.....the '99 and newer uses 1 electric actuator for both banks.

If you do fasten them.....you want to fasten them in the CLOSED position.
They are closed when the motor is running and the RPMS are low.....opening when you are under hard accelleration.