would be great if the valve clearance was in this post. seems to be hard to find information.

Valve adjustment OM615, 616, 617 FYI.

Henry,

Intake: .004 inch
Exhaust: .014 inch

I use .003 and .013 inch go feeler gages and .005 and .015 nogo feeler gages and I always set the valve clearances to the high side because the wear pattern is to decrease the clearance.

P E H

For those of you who want a pre-made cheat sheet for valve adjustments, I've taken the liberty of making one.

Click Here for the cheat sheet.


PS: OM616 one will be made in the next few days. Just need intake/exhaust layout.

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Jason

00 Subaru Legacy (fun wagon)
96 Nissan Sentra (disavowed)
82 300SD (garage queen, will run again hopefully)
87 300DT (Gone: 10/15/2010)

Thanks, waiting for the OM616 chart.

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99 Gurkha with OM616 IDI turbo

2015 Gurkha with OM616 DI turbo

2014 Rexton W with OM612 VGT

well,

Call me stupid but the other day i try the valve adjustment with the 2 14mm wrench and i could not prevent the lower nut (the 30mm one) to turn without the locking nut in any of the valves.
a lot of people insist that you just need the 2 14mm wrench but i also think you need the holding 30mm wrench to prevent the spring from turning.
I am missing something here?

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Aquilae non capunt muscas! (Eagles don't hunt flies!)


1979 300SD Black/Black MBtex239000mi
1983 300TD euro-NA. White/Olive Cloth-MBtex 201000mi. Fleet car of the USA embassy in Morocco
1983 240D Labrador Blue/Blue MBtex 161000mi

This link does not appear to work-any way to post the orginal here?

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1982 300DT 190K (Diesel Purge + synthetic oil=smoothness at last!!!)
2004 Ford E-350 6.0 L PSD 227K
2006 Dodge Ram 3500 SRW HO Cummins 4X4 48RE 42K (brute force tow vehicle)
2005 Scion xB wife's rolling pop can
1993 GMC Sierra C3500 6.2 142K

I have read this entire thread and I think I am ready to adjust my valves, but I still have one question. the Dieselgiant instructions say to only do it when the engine is cold, but there are specs for cold and warm. I was hoping to do it this afternoon, but I drove my car about two hours ago. Will I have to wait now for another day?
Thanks

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1985 Euro 300TD Turbo

It's best to do it stone cold but doing it warm won't hurt, you just need to add a bit to your clearances. Better loose than tight.

After reading all the posts, looking at all the pictures, and studying my valve cover, I finally chickened out and decided to pay a Mercedes shop to do it. Local shop quoted me $133 including valve cover gasket. As this is a once a year expense at most, and since I do all other routine maintenance myself, I thought this was the best alternative for me.

I have had this car since June, and it shakes like crazy until it gets warm. As far as I know, the valves haven't been adjusted in a very long time. Other than the shaking, the car starts with no problem, has relatively good acceleration, doesn't smoke excessively, doesn't burn oil, and gets about 24 mpg.

Taking in tomorrow to have it done. Can't wait to see the results.

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1989 300E
103,500 miles

1982 300SD
Sold but not forgotten

injectors next ?

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Bill

'82 300SD 195K
'84 300SD 199K

Can't believe how much better my car runs now after the valve adjustment. Accelerates much better, and no more shaking. The most amazing thing is the transmission shifts much smoother now. I used to have about a 10 second pause when I put into drive, but now no hesitation? Also, it doesn't jerk between gears.

Also glad I took it to a professional, he found the driver's side ball joint almost completely gone. Certainly worth the trip to the shop.

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1989 300E
103,500 miles

1982 300SD
Sold but not forgotten

i was also amazed at the results... the car runs like new now

how much in the end??? $$$$$???

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1985 300D - 599,xxxk - blue interior #265 Monark Nozzle, AL129X, 15" Ronals, Gen II Big Brakes hunting
1985 300D - 491,xxxk - in prog-{A-A IC, 3" exhaust, psi\pyro, 28*BTDC, Hella Euros, IP Limiter removal
1985 300TD - 783,xxxk - parts car,used new engine with ALDA cap inplace
1987 Kenworth T-600 8LL 425 CAT Mech. - 6,000,000+k - DEI exhaust wrap, punched through resonators, 1 recent rebuild,

The valve adjustment was $133 which included a new valve cover gasket. The ball joint was $241. I thought the valve job was good deal, especially with the dramatic improvement in performance. The ball joint caught me by surprise, after looking at how near it was to failing, and what it took to replace it, I was glad to pay the shop, even without knowing if this was a good price or not. Most importantly, had I not taken into a qualified MB shop, I would have never found it until it failed, causing more damage.

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1989 300E
103,500 miles

1982 300SD
Sold but not forgotten