[elhigh]

Well, poop. Where the heck did that cable go?

If I had to guess - and this is coming out of deep left field so don't treat it as gospel at all - the PO either removed it to kill a Check Engine Light (though you would think that would cause it to throw a code) or wanted to prevent EGR so he could wring a few extra horsepower out of it.

You're going to have to source a new cable or build one, and route it back to where it belongs. Not having EGR will truncate your MPG results for sure.