My goodness. That is the turbo intake j-pipe. Never seen anything like that. Poor car. It's been choked its entire life!
Yes, clear that out.
Or better, replace that whole intake tract with aluminum piping + couplers. The stock j-pipe is quite restrictive.
On my one XR2 I dropped the whole VAF to be inline with the turbo and used plumbing reducers to connect everything.