Am I looking at a monster vacuum leak here?

[Yarb]

On finding one I hope I didn’t imply that it was easy but they are out there. Personally I look for the permanent fix in order to move on to the next project. It all comes down to the end result you are looking for. Everyone has a budget which I fully understand. 

 

 

[siteunseen]

14 hours ago, Captain Obvious said:

Then I sawed off the EGR section, milled it flat, and made a block off plate:

Quite a bit of work, but turned out great, and since the sealing into the runners is done with bolts, that plate doesn't even really need to seal.

That's fantastic work Sir. I had the sense to saw mine off but the bottom of my tunnel was rotted farther back and too jagged for a plate. I was going to do as Zedhead mentioned, just put a big 'ol wad of JB Weld in there but lucky for me I found an N42 on an old junkyard 280.

 

[ArcticFoxCJ]

So I was able to get the plug at the end of the EGR gallery opposite where the EGR valve would be.

Looks like it's entirely jam packed with this material.  From the one plug I was able to get out earlier, showing the port from the EGR gallery to the manifold, it looks like somebody soldered the ports shut and then packed this stuff into the manifold that really does seem like casting sand.

... or it was like that from the factory.  ::shrug::