I've got 500 miles on my rebuilt 22RE and just noticed black crap on the firewall behind the rear of the head / valvecover. The EGR system is leaking somewhere. I'm pretty mad it's leaking since all the gaskets are new.

I've also heard you can remove the EGR systems with blockoff plates. Any negative affects of removing the EGR from a 22RE? I can't believe how much black gunk gets pumped back into the engine. I just got done cleaning the snot out of the head / TB during the rebuild and just thinking about all of the black junk back inside it sucks.