You have to look at what the EGR does: It's an emission item, not a fuel economy device. It is a small valve which allows a little bit of the exhaust gas to recirculate back through the intake stream to reduce upper cylinder temperatures. You wouldn't think it would, but it does. I don't have the exact figures in front of me, but it reduces the upper cylinder temperatures something like 1200-ish degrees. Quite a bit. What they discovered is that by reducing upper cyl temps reduces NOx emissions, also reduces smog. So it's a pretty inexpensive way to fight air pollution. I know nobody cares about that, and it's fashionable to complain about govt regulations but some things help everyone: smog leads to asthma and other real health issues (what if smog led to asthema in your kids??). You look at pictures of LA and other places in the late 60's you can see it works. A lot of cities in China are like it today ..mostly industrial smog ..their cars are clean.
EGR valves got a bad rap back in the 70's because 1) there wasn't much of a phase-in process and mechanics were slow to understand them (it was like Voodoo to them). It was easy to remove them on those older engines with cast iron cyl heads. 2), A lot of engines back then with 'newly designed' anti-smog equipment were hastily put together and that led to a ton of hoses, an air pump, TVS switches and things didn't always work well together. 3) Mfgrs also reduced compression a lot back then to help make this stuff work. One reason for that whole mess is because auto makers dragged their feet for years, kept putting off investing in smog equipment even though they had years to plan for it. They thought they could get their lobbiests and lawyers to overturn and stop the new regs (they didn't). Eventually California, which has a worse problem due to their climate, LA and other cities being in a valley, the direction of winds, stagnant air ...and the sheer number of people locacted in urban areas decided they didn't want to wait and went their own way with tougher regulations in advance because their cities were literally choking like Chinese cities today. That's the history. And hey, I was doing stuff on cars back then and I didn't understand what all that stuff on top the engine was for either! I think I removed an EGR valve on a car back then. Wasn't runnning right and the EGR wasn't the problem ...it was probably just plugged up. Like a lot of mechanics I just didn't understand what it did. If you weren't working for a dealership, nobody was giving training on it. So it was easy to bash early pollution controls. Guys found out if they removed it all their cars ran as well or even better (probably by installing new vacuum hoses), but cars used cast iron heads back then too and could tolerate those temps. Eventually computer control and fuel management helped clean things up.
Those early teething problems have all been worked out and EGR valves last a long time but often DO sometimes clog up with carbon deposits after a while ....moreso than they outright fail. The valve is just a small thing under the size of a dime, but with small passages. Usually a good cleaning with a small screwdriver can put them back in service. Sometimes the older style, the vacuum diaphragm would eventually become brittle (from heat/age) and crack/fail. These days most are solenoid operated. Ask your mechanic if he can just clean up the one that was on your engine. Also a lot of engines use aluminum cylinder heads too, and excess heat could be an issue.
I guess if it were me, I'd keep it just because it reduces upper cylinder head temps by a lot. Why risk head, valve or seat damage ...especially on engines with aluminum heads where seat fall-out isn't an unknown condition. I don't know if it could lead to sludge build-up conditions, but certainly wouldn't help. Aluminum heads DO warp, I paid several hundred dollars to have the same head 'unwarped' twice! But I'm sure there are guys that leave them off and the world hasn't come to an end either. I don't always trust some mechanics' recommendations when theyre from the hip. They do stuff to cars and often never see them again ..especially if something fails owners often don't go back. Other mechanics are very knowledgable and have a great understanding on how systems work together. Do you happen to know a good Chrysler mechanic you could ask this question? Maybe some saturday, walk in the back shop door and just ask a guy and see what he says. I don't know how heat-tolerant Ram heads are. I know there is a pretty good propensity for sludge build-up.
