Yeah I hear you on the cold, something about touching 10 deg metal turns me off.

It's been a while since I removed most of my vacuum system. I was trying to explain the grease you found in your VCV and I thought there was a connection between the overboost pressure system (y29) and the vacuum system. There might not be.

Suffice to say any connection with anything and your intake could have sludge forced in.

At the end of the day, you should have around 11-15hg of vacuum to your transmission modulator and this vacuum should drop to zero as you press the accelerator.