EGR - Leave Valve?

I have owned my Discovery 300 tdi for about 6 weeks, but this is my first post here.

Given the difficulties that people report in removing the EGR valve unit from the exhaust manifold, is there any good reason not to just blank the outlet where the valve unit connects to the turbo hose? I will, of course, replace the turbo hose with a straight though one and will clean out the intercooler while I'm at it.

I initially left it all in tact but blanked the exit part of the EGR, as you said where it then goes up to hose from the intercooler.

I got horrible exhaust smells in the cabin. So I removed the lot and blanked of at the manifold and hey presto, no smell.

Hope this helps.

One thing though. How do people cap off the vacuum bits where the egr manifold hoses used to go to?

I used golf tees jammed in the end with a dab of sealant ...

just done mine today,i screwed in self tappers into vac hose,manifold nuts were abit tight but came out with a bit of working back and forth,ground off metal flexi and jubalee clipped abit of old radiater hose onto it,seems to be working fine...took around 30 mins