Yeah I am going to do that. I'll plug up the plenum with something to stop the leak.
From looking at some photos, it looks like the exhaust exits the rear of the head on the exhaust side, the goes through the back plate (I think for cooling and contact with the coolant inside the head?), then back into the head at the rear on the intake side, and then out again at the EGR port the valve bolts up to. The shop that built the engine would have had to purposely block off the ports that the rear plate connects to. I don't know why they would do that without talking to me, and since this county has emissions that would be dumb. Stranger things have happened I suppose.
