I agree that you should be able to disconnect the upper end of the pipe and see if it is clear. You may need to remove the EGR valve.
There is a way of cleaning those passages withough taking everything apart. There is a cleaning tool that runs a cleaning solvent (it smells a little bit like diesel fuel, but not quite) through the passages. The EGR valve is removed for the proceedure, but nothing else needs to be removed. It really cleans things up very well. The one I am familiar with is made by MOC. I have seen it used on a variety of engines, but I have not observed it on a Duratec. It has worked well on everything else, so I'm sure that it would work on one of them too.
