Cleaned EGR valve, not sure if full circuit is needed. 111k miles

I cleaned the EGR valve today to gauge whether the EGR system seems bad enough to go through with a full cleaning circuit (cooler, intake, etc.). What do you guys think?

You can see that it looks caked in carbon before cleaning, but honestly after spraying it with parts cleaner and running a shop rag through it...it was clean and with very little sediment that came off (last 2 pictures). Visually it looked caked, but in reality it was just a thin layer of carbon. I think the revised welding line makes the first picture seem like it is caked on there, but that is just the welding line lightly dusted. Most of the sediment appeared around contact points of the valve/EGR system, the inside wasn't terrible.

As long as the 96% of the EGR piping is supplying flow, does the system really need to be cleaned? Maybe the cooler is clogged but based on the valve, I'm guessing it's not. What do you all think, should I clean the cooler or just let it be and maybe settle for cleaning the intake while I'm already in here?

 

I would guess 111k unless the previous owner did a replacement prior to 70k. I have no way of knowing for sure.

 

Yup, I’m doing that now. The intake on the block is crazy caked in carbon but I’m not sure what to do because I dont want to hit or spray the injectors (I bet those are covered too if the block itself is soaked in oil and carbon, but I haven’t seen this mentioned in the EGR circuit on the threads). The manifold itself I sprayed with cleaner and rinsed, I'm sure I didn't get everything on the internals but the inlets look fine.

The gasket on the manifold seems fine but so I guess I’ll just reuse it until 200k, but will replace it if I risk damaging the intake performance.