My Mondeo is usually at operating tempreture by 3-5 miles. It was taking over 10 miles to reach operating temp with the EGR blanked off.
I have a feeling that over time it would cause more wear on the engine than the EGR causes by filling the oil with soot.
So I removed the blanking plate

I'm going to get the inlet manifold cleaned and the EGR and keep changing the oil every 6k.
My worry is that if the coolant is taking much longer to heat up then the oil will be much colder for longer which will increase wear on the turbo and engine.