sent you my number. its easier to talk it thru.

But the two bolts from the EGR you need to remove ARE THE HORIZONTAL BOLTS (NOT THE VERTICAL BOLTS) that go thru the cast iron (rusty brown) cooling hose section of the egr into the throttle body elblw.

I also loosened the bolts that holds the plastic wiring harness contraption behind the throttle boddy so it can be moved back towards the firewall.

Once you disconnect ALL of the connectors on the fuel rail passenger side, the harness connector by the valve cover. the first two ign coil connectors, the egr valve and the MAP sensor behind the TB elbow, you can push all that wiring out of the way and tie it to the cowl mounting piece up above and you get a great view of everything.

With the cabin air filter box and filter holder removed, the EGR bolts are a snap to get- you just need the right combo of 6 point 8mm socket and extensions to get around the heater lines

 

YES! use a 6 point socket and get on it STRAIGHT! i rounded mine but got it off. I bought new bolts for this time around (I am in the process of tearing it all down again to change out the injectors.

Also, very important to TORQUE everything to spec as many of the metal shim gaskets (not the rubber ones) need a specific toque to crush the metal formed sealing ridge to the right thickness or else they leak if you crush them too much (I believe)

 

Brutal is correct, of course.

Will be interested to see the condition of the rotors in your SC if you could post pics.

All the carbon and filth you see in my pics was all cleaned up and surfaces were polished and indeed port matched as well where possible.

 

btw, mines a 2006 and has a big plastic box mounted behind the TB elbow that is in the way of getting the EGR out. you can see it in your pic on the right side with the harness coming out of it. Loosen thenuts holding it to the bracket to get extra room to get the EGR out. And the other nut circled below.

 

I have circled the elbow bracket that has two bolts one either side of the elbow you have to get off. Aarcuda mentioned that a few posts back.

 

S



o here are a couple of photos of what mine looks like.
I had no luck with the bracket holding the heater hoses as the bolt head is too tight to the engine for a socket. This might take 1 hour to come out at that speed. It's a 10mm but my new 10mm shorty doesn't work because the bracket has a bent edge for strength and that prevents the open ended ratchet wrench from rotating. It's always something ... No chance of a socket in there with my 1/4" kit but let check one other kit I have for very tight quarters. I'm assuming that detaching that bracket will allow some more movement of the hoses out of the way????

But as these photos show there's still just so much in the way that I can't even see the heads of those side mount bolts.

And all of this stuff does not move. Maybe a cut off saw could clear it out of the way!!! But I don't think this big harness detaches?????

 

what I think I am looking at in your pics you posted are all top views.

The bolts holding the egr pipe are way lower and really can only be seen with the air cabin filter box removed and looking way back below the cylinder head to the rear fire wall which is what I show in my pic.

Also on my car, an XJR, the windscreen cowling had to be levered up out of the way. Many take it off but I simply levered and tied it up out of the way to get a straight shot at the egr pipe.

The big harnesses have attachment anchors which can be forced free as they are, on my car, just plastic.

 

Yeah AFAIK I've removed everything suggested. I have an idea of where they are but can't photograph those spots as too much of what I just posted is in the way. Yours is also a much different model but similar engine.
Those harnesses block everything from the top and sides.

Seems like this is an engine out job. That's not happening so maybe just sell the thing.

Does this need to be up on a lift and with the RF wheel off and liner off?

 

Yes I know you have less room than I did for this.

Possibly doing what you suggest with the wheel and liner would work. Worth looking at.

 

Well I've looked a dozen times and I think it's time to surrender and send this one one to someone else. I'm outdoors in the driveway and probably never should have started this repair as it's clear to me now that this is a lot harder than people let on. There's a reason there's not a lot more description about what comes next. It's impossible to describe. I simply am not seeing what you guys are describing. I'd need to tear out the wiring harness to get at those bolts. Probably need to cut out all the those heater hoses too and I'm not willing to just try and disconnect everything. I know it would never go back WO a lot of additional trips in here for what broke.

So glad I didn't order the parts.

I'll stuff the all the parts in the car and someone else can soldier on with this car. It's been a maintenance nightmare.

So it needs this repair the 4 rear suspension links and the headliner repaired.

Transmission flushed 2 years ago

Recent new rotors and pads

Nice paint. No rust some chips up front.

Great light interior.

Tires are 3-4 years old and of the original type.
Rims not damaged.

It drove great but has that SOB coolant hose failure.

Jaguar racing green

70K miles.

 

the wheel liner does nothing for you. its all metal in between.

I will get you the pictures tonight and we will make this work. The space is tight as hell thats for sure. I used a wrench that has a ratchet box end on a swivel tyo get to the tb elbow brackety bolts and it was still hard to get to. i wish my 10mm wrench was LONGER! it would have helped

 

Listen to Aarcuda as he knows a lot more about your situation. I just looked at an image of the engine bay of a 2005 str and way less room than my car.

 

So having decided to sell the car now I threw my normal caution to the wind and grabbed those heater hoses a yanked them really hard until something creaked and now they're out of the way enough to place my hand down there and feel the the bolt heads. Full of rust. It feels like some of Kroil I attempted to get on all the other threads may have gotten on these as well so that's good. 8mm 6-point socket right? Worked straight on and no slip. I wonder if they used Loctite on these tiny bolts?

If I manage to get those out (I can't imagine how I'd ever be able to get them back in with the new gasket in place after the throttle body manifold is put back in) why can't I just leave the assembly there and try to do the rest WO going after the other end of this? Just asking ...

Not really sure what the next steps would be if I should get that far ??? I do see the corrugated plastic vacuum hose has that silly connector on the end that looks really hard to detach. The rest of that hose is loose so could I leave that on and remove the manifold with it still attached or is it in the way of the rest of the bolts?

The goal now would be to get it running so that it can be sold so very little "while I'm at it stuff". Just a standard repair. If I could do that then I could use it as trade in for something else.

It really does have to leave my house this time. I know there will just be yet another PITA breakdown if I don't.

UPDATE: Thought I'd try one bolt .

So I couldn't get a socket + straight extension + wrench handle on it.

So I added a knuckle joint in close to the socket and while holding the socket on the bolt head with my fingers as best and straight as I could WO being able see a GD thing I gave it a shot.

So now I have a socket that's rolled a bit and is now stuck on the head ... It seems that these bolts are either really tight or perhaps secured with Loctite?

Tomorrow I can try a few more things. Going swimmingly ...

 

The EGR has to come off so you can get to the tb elbow bracket bolt thats on the lower side of the elbow near the back.

it actually goes on easier that it comes off.

it took me a long while to finagle the bolts and stuff off. So dont be discouraged. Every time you try you find what works and where your hands should be. I dropped stuff for an hour trying to fish my hand ind there

 

Hi
I've Just had to do the valley pipe on my 2004 STR
everything was straight forward until I got to the EGR
The flexi came off the manifold, but that it, the flexi on the egr would not undo and the egr retaining bolts would not undo
due to lack of space, I used a die grinder, had to lie on the engine to get comfortable and get easy access to get my hand in and just grind the heads off the egr retaining bolts
did not take long about 5 minutes each, then egr slid off with flexi, once egr off, the studs sticking out just unscrew with fingers easy
when I reinstalled the egr, I used all stainless pins, so wont happen again in the future
cheers
Joe

 

With the harness disconnected all around the egr and passenger side valve cover you can zip tie it up and out of the way.

with the cabin filter boxes removed, you can use a ratchet and sever extensions of various sizes along with a swivel And socket near the EGR. I had the ratchet down by the heater core hoses so I could wrench the ratchets handle down by the valve cover/head/exhaustmanifold/heater hose area. This is where i dropped the socket a dozen times

if you can get the 6 point socket STRAIGHT ON and still attached to the extensions and ratchet, you get just enough space to crack it loose. Theres no locktite. Just rust

 

How did you even see where the tool was? My arm disappears almost up to my elbow in that spot. I do have a small die grinder but given the tight quarters perhaps a Dremel tool would be best?

 

Here are some pics

The two bracket bolts are sticking out left and right lossely to show where they are

One on the passenger side is under the egr and thats why it needs to come off

Drivers side bolt is tucked up underneath and is a bitch


The bracket for the elbow. Also see how much more wiring and conduit I have? Yours should be a breeze!

Bracket

You can see the 1/4” drive 8mm long socket on a swivel here for removing the egr. THIS PICTURE NEEDS TO BE ROTATED 180 degrees! It loaded upside down

And heres the other side of the extension. Put your ratchet out here. Its easier

 

Well thanks to everyone who tired to get me through this. I got access to that bolt head finally. It's so hard to find with just your hands and then get the socket with extensions and wrench in place but I did manage to get there. The trouble is the bolt head immediately rounded off and my bolt extraction kit only goes down to 10mm.

I'm done.

So I'm open to offers for the car. I'm not spending any more money or time on this one.

Car is in the classifieds.

 

see I forget. I grew up in boston. Lived there until 21. You have rust! I dont have rust! None. Anywhere! Since I moved from Boston to LA and then to Arkansas, all my cars except the cuda are southern cars and theres no rust. So my bolts come off and dont round

man I hated that! Every furcking time a bolt would snap or nut round.

but. First question:

DO YOU HAVE THAT BRACKET UNDER THE TB elbow? Oops sorry caps.

if no, take the 4 bolts off the elbow to supercharger and take it off with the egr on