For me, the
problem bolts are usually the one at the bottom of the EGR/ASV (because it's a nightmare to get to), and the three holding the EGR cooler onto the manifold (because the easy way to get the manifold out is to detach it from the cooler... until one or more of the bolts round out and you end up having to undo everything else to then wrestle the mess out)
You're in good company with those ones, because I feel exactly the same. The one on the right under the EGR valve kills me every time. Your hand is twisted underneath, and it's a mission just to get your hands under before you've even tried to get the allen key in the head and keep it there while you turn it. Even though I've got a 1/4" ratchet, it just doesn't work in that space, so I end up using a standard allen key, which I can only turn something like an eighth of a turn before I've got to take it out to get another eighth of a turn. That's if I don't drop it into the engine bay. Or the bolt, when it finally comes out. With your hands like that, your arm is constantly dragging on the hose clamps for the coolant pipes and they are sharp as you like, and will bruise you even if you're wearing sleeves - it's like they deliberately decided to put them exactly where they did.
Oh, and it's not like you can do it all in one go, because your hands get so tired doing all that nonsense, so you've got to keep taking them out to give them a rest before you start getting cramp, and then go through that whole process again. It took me ages. An eighth of a turn at a time...
The top bolt on the cooler was really easy. Thought the rest would be like that. The one on the driver's side I couldn't get off without taking the coolant hose off, which I was hoping not to do, and it felt stiff in the same place every turn, so thought it might snap. The one on the passenger side is the reason I've got bruised ribs from lying on the engine to cut the head off. I couldn't get anything onto it that would give me enough leverage to turn it out, so tried a few things, like the two spanners thing, and bought some long allen sockets, but it was never coming out. Had to unplug that coolant hose too so I didn't saw through it.
Even with that out, then you have to do the six neat cycled bolts that go in the engine, and if you snap any of those, what the hell are you going to do? Cracked all six individually before taking them out and can't begin to describe the relief when they all came out.
You can bet I'm using all new bolts and have re-tapped as many threads as I can get to. I don't imagine a bit of copper slip is going to do it any harm either.
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