Advice Needed! P0401, P0300, P0301, P0303 Head Gasket and/or EGR?

@ASRDogman Thanks! My friend who is an old school kind of guy came to help me today. After I explained all the advice/knowledge I gained from the chat and what I had already done to the cooler, he suggested to soak the EGR cooler in gasoline overnight and then pressure wash it in the morning. We borrowed a dewalt gas pressure washer from a friend and gave both EGR coolers a go with the pressure washer. The replacement cooler which I have been cleaning for a couple days and was in worst shape (completely clogged, zero light) ended up pretty good, the original EGR cooler which we just removed today and was in better shape (about 4-6 open channels) right out of the car stayed about the same. So we are trying his method now and both EGR coolers are filled with gas and will soak overnight, I’m pretty sure the replacement part will be ready tomorrow after the gas bath, pressure washing it and letting it enjoy a few 30 minute sessions on the ultrasonic spa!

@rjparker I’m afraid you are right. What will be a definite sign of a bad head gasket?

I checked the spark plugs and they seem to be fine (I’ll take a picture when I work on the car again). I’m strongly leaning towards faulty (not torqued and/or not gapped correctly) spark plugs as the main cause of my car trouble.

Oil level and coolant level has been stable before/after the incident. No shaking after replacing the bad spark plugs (none before the incident either).

To my surprise, the intake manifold openings were not clogged at all. Quite dirty as expected but not clogged (pictures below). The EGR valve was very dirty but surprisingly easier to open than the replacement valve I bought (before cleaning it). The EGR cooler was very bad but not completely clogged (exactly how you mentioned about a completely clogged system throwing codes).
The original PVC valve rattled about the same as the new one I installed, not sure it was bad but since I had purchased a new one…
Throttle seemed clean, a layer of oil (not quite a puddle) under the throttle at the bottom of the intake.
Anything else I should look at while everything is out? (My friend said we might as well had replaced the engine, we were 1/3 there! )

The fun part is going to be putting everything back together (specially remembering which nut and bolt goes where and finding them!)

If I only gain a couple of weeks before the head gasket gives up the ghost it will be worth it. I’m really hoping more than a few weeks but only time will tell…

Thank you everyone again for your help and patience!

 

Oh I forgot to mention! This morning after soaking the EGR cooler overnight in oven cleaner and rinsing it, I only saw one passage open so I decided to ask a radiator shop how much they will charge me to clean it. I thought they would have a bath of secret sauce (acid, actually) where they soak the radiators for a few minutes and the emerge as clean as when they were new!

The first shop seemed more established and nicer, the gentlemen there asked to see the part, asked what it was (didn't seem very familiar with it) and told me that I was better off buying a new part.

I went to a nearby shop, more of low key kind of place and I caught the professionals eating lunch. The owner asked me what I needed and when I explained it to him he informed me that he need it to see the part to know exactly what he needed to do and give me a quote. I brought in the part and he pronounced a number at the same time as he was chewing/sallowing a carnita's taco so what I heard was "$10 dollars" so I repeated to him what I heard just to make sure and he promptly replied in a loud, clear voice "No, a hundred dollars!" which really surprised me and before I could plan a calm and moderate response I replied in disbelief "100 dollars?!!!" to which he quickly replied "well, I need to submerge the part in acid and clean it really good". Learning from my previous mistake I followed up his explanation in a calm, interested tone "Oh I see, yes that seems to be a complicated process. Wouldn't acid damage the part since is aluminum?". Now he seemed to be the one caught of guard and explained that the liquid was "something like acid, but not acid"

So... I came home and poured more oven cleaner in the cooler while I removed the other parts from the car...

 

@ChapmanF that makes sense! Somehow I was thinking EGR Cooler = small radiator = aluminum :/