What do I have going on here? PO's EGR delete

[4th4]

I picked up a 2005.1 TDI Jetta wagon, 5-sp, BEW engine code recently and slowly trying to understand these cars.
The PO mentioned doing an EGR delete (and "tune"), which at the time I'd only heard about but never really understood why. Fast forward a few weeks after owning it and I'm digging around the engine a little more trying to familiarize myself.
I can see where the Delete modifications were made but I dont understand WHAT was done or why.

For instance behind the motor (near the firewall), under the air intake boot there's an open manifold port, a pipe with no hose, and below that there's cut coolant lines.
Can someone explain what I'm looking at and what's going on? I don't like the idea of open ports in the engine.
Is this a pretty common practice when doing a delete?

What would be the main purpose for a modification like this?

 

[mjydrafter]

Not sure what the PO did, but the EGR is still there. Not functioning from the looks of it.

When I did my delete, part of it was getting rid of the EGR cooler in your second pic.

I'm guessing he blocked the turbo and intake, and looped or plugged the coolant hoses. I can't zoom in enough to see, but I think the EGR is still plugged in.

Doing it correctly, you would need a tune, to get rid of the CEL if you unplug and cover the EGR.

 

[oilhammer]

Yep, looks pretty hack job to me. We don't know what the drive was to do that. If you just wanted the EGR to "not work", all you have to do is unplug it.... takes 5 seconds. Now if the system was leaking (exhaust leak, coolant leak, etc.) then maybe you would want to physically remove some stuff. But from your pic, the upper EGR pipe is gone, I suspect the lower one is too, and there are two block off plates (one on the turbo, one on the intake), and they did some bypass of the coolant hoses, too.

 

[4th4]

Okay so I found some old correspondence between the PO and I.
I'll try and paraphrase what he told me about the EGR.

The lower egr pipe was cracked, so instead of replacing it, again, opted to ‘delete’ it. Used blank off plates, a coolant line rerouting kit and an "EGR delete tune" to fix the constant CEL. No performance tune was completed, just a tune to remove the EGR from the software.

Left EGR physically installed as it was cheaper to leave it attached and was preparing to reinstall it, if needed be (Lived in an area at the time that did smog checks). The coolant line rerouting was a kit picked up online, no cutting, just different hoses.
(This doesn't explain the hoses in front of the firewall that look cut).

A VW repair shop did the flash. Probably Kerma tune, as they are a dealer.

Sorry for my ignorance but this still doesn't tell me what that open manifold port is. Is it part of the EGR? and since its been bypassed is okay that its open because its blanked off at the business end?

EDIT:
Here's a few more pics with better lighting.

Mystery "cut" hoses. Or may just the fittings removed/reused as the PO described.

Peeking through some plumbing to get a better vantage of the open manifold, and two (what look like) coolant lines?

 

[mjydrafter]

That open port is the EGR cooler. Which since you have a tune, you could remove, if you were inclined.

The cracked pipes the PO refers to are on the top and bottom of the cooler, one goes to the intake, the other to the turbo. Check on the intake, right behind the EGR for the plate, and the other should be on the turbo. You can look for them to verify, but if it runs, they're there. (ETA: I can see the top plate in the 3rd pic.)

If I were you I would get a block off plate and yank the EGR. If you don't care about your hands, and you're felling plucky you could pull that cooler out of there.