You can block off the EGR by fabbing up a small plate to fit the head. Use the gasket as a template. You can also add crankcase breathers in place of the vents on top of the valve cover. LC Engineering sells all this stuff. It'll keep all that nasty carbon out of your intake. Also, you could remove your throttle body and clean it since your motor has so many miles on it. My 22re had 150,000 miles on it and when I took off the throttle body there was about a 1/2" of black oily goo stuck on the butterfly. Getting rid of it would certainly help.
