Rednroll

I haven't made a trip to Sears yet, maybe they have a Craftsman or FlankDrive option that will work. I've been to the Home Depot, Lowes, HF and Autozone so far and haven't found anything that would tighten/grab onto the bolt head or comes in a 6 point box end style.

The closest I have is a 10mm brake line wrench which is 6 point but has the open end which I was thinking I may have to turn into a donor for this job. I've been considering getting out the welder to close out the end of the brake line wrench to prevent the wrench from spreading apart when I wrench on those bolts.

I just found this 10mm 6-point Craftsman on Ebay for $13, so that's encouraging. Wondering how well I'm going to get at that back bolt though with it.

Rednroll

Well, I went to Ace Hardware and then Sears who both carry Craftsman wrenches. Neither one of them had a 6 point 10mm box end wrench on the shelves.
They both had this set but Sears was having a 50% off sale on them. So I picked up this set for $30, hoping this will do the job.


It seems like Sears is doing it's best to try and stay in business, because they had some pretty decent sales and promotions going on.

In addition to the 50% off wrench set, I picked this 20 piece Craftsman ratchet wrench set up for $60 (50%off). Then on top of that, they have an offer of spend $50 or more and receive $25 in free cash points, then upon checking out they printed up coupons of receive an additional $8 of free spending cash, as well as $4 off on any tool purchase of $20 or more. I'm thinking I'll likely go back tomorrow and pick up another set of these ratchet wrenches that are on sale and take advantage of all those promotions which should put my out of pocket spend at $60-$25-$8-$4=$23 on a 2nd set. They also had 50% off on the same 20 piece ratchet wrench set of "GearWrench" brand for $50. Maybe I'll give those a try for $13 out of pocket.


It's funny how I went there to spend $10-$15 on a single wrench, didn't find what I was looking for and am going to end up spending over a $100 on tools.

Edit:
I just went on sears.com, and that same extreme grip wrench set I purchased for $30, online is on sale for $20 where you can select store pickup. Go figure.
http://www.sears.com/craftsman-5-piece-extreme-grip-wrench-set/p-00912758000P?unitNo=0001490&sellerId=SEARS&prdNo=5 &blockNo=5&blockType=G5

Mr.T

Red, if I remember right the trick was after getting the easy bolt out -- rotate the whole EGR valve a little counter clockwise to break the other bolt loose.

Also, these gearwrench wobble extensions https://www.amazon.com/GearWrench-81004-4-Inch-Wobble-Extension/dp/B000NI938Y/ref=pd_bxgy_469_2?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B000NI938Y&pd_rd_r=XYN8B67SP84SYR5SJTS9&pd_rd_w=VSHKY&pd_rd_wg=BkR7L&psc=1&refRID=XYN8B67SP84SYR5SJTS9 are nice when there isn't a straight shot. Didn't have these when doing the EGR, but they might be helpful.

Rednroll

Thanks, I'm having trouble getting the easy bolt out. I guess bolts that are part of the exhaust flow such as the EGR valve bolts with 150K miles on them, just don't like to come out very easily. I own some of those wobble extensions, they won't do any good for this job. Your only access to the bolts are from the side of the head and you have about 1in of room to work with above the head of the bolt to get a wrench on it.

Mr.T

If there's only one bolt left, can you rotate the whole EGR valve counter-clockwise? Just a couple degrees rotation on the flange should break the bolt loose. Mine's a manual trans, forgot about the auto being even harder to get at the bolts.

Edit: Here's a pic with the trans out. Pic probably doesn't help you, but it sure is easy to get at now. Murphy's law: Shortly after trans install, EGR goes bad again -- but there's plenty of never-seize on the bolts. It's been a while, forgot how hard this was to get at though the fender area.

Rednroll

Actually both 10mm bolts are still in. I'm just starting to go at it again with this Craftsman extreme grip set, hoping to get a bite on the "easy" bolt and get it to break its seal, then I can move on to the next step of being able to push on the EGR while attempting to hold the hard one, all with that trans tube blocking everything.

Mr.T

The extreme grips look good, hope they make it happen.

Rednroll

Well, this absolutely blows. I've had easier times removing 18mm rusted on suspension bolts than getting this damn 10mm EGR bolt loosened.

I haven't been able to budge it.

Here's what the current situation looks like.

The state of the "easy" bolt.


I'm down to these pair of grips that a friend of mine from work let me borrow to try to tackle this job.


It's starting to get dark, I've spent the last 3 hours working on one bolt, tried multiple types of wrenches trying to turn it, I've soaked it with PB Plaster and WD-40, and that MFin bolt isn't moving. I'm about to mail this in.

Mr.T

This is a long shot, but perhaps run engine until it's hot, put some water (soaked rags) on the EGR to cool the aluminum flange, and try the bolts? Aluminum's coefficient of expansion is about double steel, the idea being that the internal threads in the head will stay hot and expanded, and the flange will shrink. Another thought is grinding the heads off with a pneumatic die grinder or a dremel?

This type of situation is something we all fear happening!

Rednroll

That sounds like a great idea. I have that bolt pretty well buggered up now from those grips and am waving the white flag.

Now the funny part where I'm laughing at my own irony! I was putting all my tools away, where earlier I pulled out an old Craftsman socket set to grab a 6 point 10mm socket. That didn't work because there wasn't enough clearance for my ratchet with the socket, it was a smidgen too deep to fit in the space. Then just now as I go to put that socket back in the case, I find these tools in the same tool case.

A 6-point 10mm box wrench and a low profile ratchet which I inherited from my grand father and forgotten I had. I shopped all over for these tools, and I had both in my tool cases and now that I buggered up that bolt with the grips, they're both pretty much worthless for this job. If I had started with either of these, I likely would have had much better luck.