egr tube...

Napa sells high temp rubber hose (it is green). there are some companies who supply this green hose when there parts require a modification of the tube. i.e. intake spacers, aftermarket intakes, superchargers...... As long as it is not to close to the header it will be fine.
 
You can take the egr off, but without turning it off in the eec you are going to have two issues.
You are going to get a check engine light, and the bigger issue is that the eec adds alot of timing when it thinks the egr valve is open. If it thinks it is open, but not actually flowing you will likely get some pinging or bucking under part throttle.