First off let me say thanks to all who post on this site. I was able to replace my intake manifold gasket on a 2000 ZR2 this weekend and saved a bundle of money and my wife having to walk the kids to school because I took her car to the office.

In the process however, I damaged the EGR tube when I tried to remove it. It looks to be a real pain in the rump to remove from the bottom driver side of the engine. Has anybody tried to repair this?

I was thinking of cutting off the damaged portion, coupling it with some heater hose and having a flared piece of metal tuning right at the end where it goes into the top side of the engine.

Any suggestions?????

 

Heater hose won't cut it. Hot exhaust gases flow through that tube and will eat up heater hose. Best bet would be to replace it with a donor off of a junkyard motor or look for it on eBay. Seller s10warehouse can likely part this for you as he deals with all s-series parts.

And yeah, it can be fun to remove from the exhaust manifold.

 

Just an idea here. I can' visualize the tube you damaged so I don't know if this might work or not.

Copper tube at the hardware store is somewhat flexable and can be flared. Could you make it work if you flared one end and saw cut the other end so you could spread it enough to get it over the existing pipe & then use a hose clamp?

 

Copper tubing would probably work. You may be able to find a compression fitting to mate the two together if you are lucky.

 

Exhaust gas is extremely hot, I don't think copper will hold up either. I always thought that EGR pipe looked like a piece of gas tube in back of a stove but I don't think you could reflare it by hand.

 

It sounds to me like the best thing is to change the whole tube. Any good advise getting it off the bottom end. It looks real tight back there?

Gonna start to search for the replacement.

Also, should I be worried about driving it with the hose disconnected??? I hear what sounds like a vacuum leak.

Really though, any good advise on how I should get this thing off???

 

My suggestion would be to unplug the connector from the EGR valve and if the break is accesible pinch it off with vise grips while you look for another tube or try to splice it. If Kyle thinks copper will work try it, he has a LOT more experience them me.

 

The difficult part is getting any patch job to seal up properly.

The easiest solution is to replace the pipe (CLICK HERE).

As far as removal/installation goes, it can be fun. A set of crows foot sockets will make the job easier.

Removing either the inner fender or the brake booster (or is it both...?) will give you much more room as well.

 

Copper melts at just under 2,000 degrees. I don't think you will ever see over 1,000 degrees at the exhaust manifold. If you ever see over 1,600 degrees in the exhaust stream at the exhaust port something is really wrong.