Did my first valve adjustment, now a few follow up questions...

[davidd]

Ok, so I adjusted my valves for the first time, had three exhaust valves that were super tight. None of the intake were tight. Erred on the side of letting them be a little loose, as I wasn't sure how tight they should be on the feeler gauge. Should the feeler gauge have some resistance when pushed in?

Also, what affect would loose valves have on the car?

I did this adjustment due to hard starts (as in I have to push on the pedal to get the car started, only when the car is cold), more smoke, more vibrations, horrible mpg. As of now, the smoke seems decreased, the vibrations the same, not sure about mpg yet and I still have hard starts when cold.

What else could my hard starts be? An air leak maybe?

Vibrations could be a number of things, most probably motor mounts.

So yeah, I mostly want to know what loose valves would do to the car. Also, if I opened it back up next week and tightened them up a bit, would the new valve cover gasket still be cool to use? Dumb question I know, just want to make sure.

Thanks,
David