Valve Adjustment Tips

[warmblood58]

Found all my valves super tight and went through them twice - the Diesel Giant valve adjustment procedure is excellent! My wrenches, bought from a certain Mercedes do it yourself site were just o.k - too long so I cut them down and they are still too thick so they will need to be ground down to half the thickness to be truly useful - find some good wrenches for this procedure -can't see how some members make a standard wrench work as working space can be tight. Diesel Giant has a adjustment sheet that you can print out to keep track of which valves that you have adjusted - staying organized is good! I had to free up two stuck adjusters by imprisoning the large nut at the bottom of the spring. Lock the top nut and turn the bottom nut CW to loosen nut for adjustment, CCW to tighten when you have achieved the proper clearance. Rotating the top nut CW will increase the clearance, CCW will decrease the clearance. Be sure to wipe valve cover mating service clean on cylinder head -no oil and do remove gasket from valve cover and wipe clean along with valve cover. There is an excellent link on this site for refitting the valve cover the factory way and do not over tighten valve cover or you will get leaks and possibly warp cover. If your old gasket feels hard, you will need to replace - I will be ordering one soon so that I have it in my garge for the next adjustment -good luck!