I've been fitting the EGR bypass pipe today. All was going well until I went to remove the pipe from the turbo outlet which delivers the exhaust gases to the EGR valve. Instead of the nut loosening, the stud sheered off!

Has this ever happened to anyone before?

I have some metal epoxy resin and I'm thinking of using this to seal the blanking plate over the outlet, but it is only heat resistant to 150C and I have a feeling this outlet will be a lot hotter than that.

What other options do I have? Welding a plate over the outlet?

EGR line comes from the manifold not the turbo outlet. Are you sure you haven't broken one of the oil feed lines? Assuming you have snapped off a stud from the manifold, you will need to remove the manifold and extract the stud, retap the thread and fit a new stud. High pressure in that area, and temperatures as high as 800c

Yes sorry it's the EGR feed from the manifold where the stud has snapped. There is one remaining stud. I guess using the metal epoxy is no good with temps of 800c. How hard is it to remove the exhaust manifold?

Are there any other ways I could seal it? I won't be refitting the EGR valve so if theres a way to do it without needing the studs I could try that.

Well welding cast iron is nigh impossible for the DIY mechanic, and in any case, you cannot weld cast iron to a mild steel blanking plate without fancy equipment. A blanking plate fitted with just one stud is probably going to leak. Can't really think of an easy fix I'm afraid. Manifold is easy enough to remove, but the turbo oil lines will need to come off and should really be replaced to ensure the pipe end glands seal properly when refitted.

One thing you could do is try a thick blanking plate with one stud. Say 3mm thick. That will prevent the exhaust pressure lifting it at the unsecured end.

What about drilling the rest of the stud that is in there then putting a nut and bolt through? The hard bit would be drilling the remaining stud out while the manifold is still attached.

I've found a picture of the manifold and circled the stud that sheared. It has sheared level with the flange so there is nothing sticking out. What are these studs made from and is it likely I can drill the remaining stud out with a flexible drill shaft and then use a nut and bolt to secure the blanking plate?

Otherwise there is quite a lip on the flange that I could use to clamp the blanking plate to, anybody got a good method or fixing to do this?

I think I've managed to get this sorted. I chugged along to B&Q (Seriously loud when running with no blanking plate on the manifold, and seriously slow) and got a 6mm thick hot rolled iron bar. I then cut this to length and drilled a hole for the remaining stud. I bolted it in place along with the gasket and I applied some silicone gasket paste too. I then cut 2 thin strips of steel sheet and drilled a hole in each end, I used this in an exhaust clamp arrangement to clamp down the side where the stud had sheared. I put a strip over the top of the blanking plate and one under the flange from the manifold then used two bolts to clamp it down, trying to make sure it wasn't touching the turbo oil feed line as I was worried it might cut in to it over time due to vibrations.

Started it up and it sounded normal again, took it out for a 10 minute blast, using full boost as much as possible. There was no leakage from the blanking plate as far as I could tell ( No hissing or whistling apart from the usual turbo noises). Hopefully this has fixed it but only time will tell. Thanks for the ideas and suggestions MoggyTech it helped a lot.

nice diy fix

just keep an eye on it!