Whelp, I finished this afternoon, one of the more intricate bits of maintenance. The valve adjustment is complete. I had to turn the adjustment nuts several turns to get the car back in spec. I shudder to think how bad those valves were actually out. The car is running pretty smooth now, save for the still louder than normal injector knock. It still varies in intensity, and does make the engine lope when it wants to be bad enough. I found the offending injector, #4 to be exact. and will likely be pulling them all to be checked and rebuilt very soon.

I didn't have the specialty tools for the valve adjustment. After the difficulty with using "normal" tools, I think I'll be buying a set before the next one is due. It is a NASTY job without the right stuff.

It does feel good though to be finally getting motivated enough to do wrenching again.

Dump some RedLine or Diesel Purge in the tank (the whole bottle) and take the car for a trip before you pull the injector -- low compression leads to serious carbon buildup, and the trip with fuel treatment will burn most of it off now that the compression is OK.

I'd also repeat the valve adjustment in about 2000 miles, too -- if they were tight, you can get carbon buildup on the valves and valve stems, and it burns off quicly when the valves are adjusted correctly. This results in tight vales, especially exhaust valves, when the carbon burns off. Happened on the 220D -- got hard to start again, and I found the #1 exhaust had 0 clearance cold....

Peter

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1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!

I have about 1/2 gallon of Power Service additive that I'm gonna dump into the next tank. I used diesel purge to fill the large fuel filter, and ran the rest through recycling back into the can untill it died. Then I reconnected the supply and return lines and reprimed. Helped a bit, but wasn't enough to call a good purge.

I'm making progress a bit at a time, and I'm finally wrenching again.