imrc question

[dannymurphy]

i have been looking around lately on the old posts here for any info witch might help me with my sluggish 2000 windsdtar
i sometimes have good acceleration but mostly i have what feels like no power at high rpm's
anyway i found out about the imrc and the forum led me to its location and guess what ??
the friggin thing is not even hooked up on my van. the controll motor is there but the arms and anything else is just not on the engine the 2 little butterflies are rusted but i can move them freely with my hand

i have changed my air filter, spark plugs, i have cleaned the iac and the maf i have also checked and fixed a couple of vacume leaks as well as cleaned my throttle plate. i was getting the lean codes in both banks but since i fixedthe leaks and reset the codes the cel has not come back on
i have also heard that the CAT could be a likely culprit but i dont know how to diagnose this

any way how important is the imrc??. i just bought the van in april and the thing most likely has been disconented for some time. the previous owner of my van was really har on this poor thing. how much engine damaged could thid thing have possiably caused

thanks
my wife says im getting obsesed with this van but i just want to get it working so i can stop worrying about my wife and kid driving this thing while im away at work