You likely have a vacuum leak somewhere. It's better to fix than to 'simplify'. If the BUFO itself is NFG, it's easy enough to replace.

A problem with air can be a big thing (like a condenser) or a little thing like an o-ring. Does the heat work correctly, or does it just blast hot.

The going price for a 190TD is far more than $2000. The last decent one I saw was $5K. It had non-working A/C and some other funky stuff.

Was this the same car that was in the flood?