Any ideas?? 89 2.9

Merry Christmas all! I have a 89, 2.9, 4WD, Supercab Ranger. Heres the trouble. When I accelerate it hesitates and then just picks right up and goes. Sometimes along the drive I will feel it cut back and then surge back to where it was. It also takes two to three tries to start it. If I remember right I pulled a code 44 off it which said no egr detected or egr detected a lean setting. I also see exhaust leaking behind the y pipe somewhere. These things might not even be related, Im just passing along all of the info. Any ides?:feedback: