Yesterday, I replaced the valve cover gaskets on my 1986 420 SEL. Whilst removing one of the valve covers, my fingers brushed against one of the large nuts at the bottom of the valve clearance compensating element, and I realised that this nut was loose. I checked the other nuts, and found them to be all tight, so I tightened up the loose one as best I could in the confined space with an adjustable spanner. My question is should these nuts be tightened to a specific torque, and does the torque setting play any role in the valve train clearance/operation? My car did have and still has a quiet valve train. The nut I am referring to is shown at the bottom of the attached picture, which was borrowed from a previous post by rstarkie.

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In the confined space available I managed to tighten this nut up a little more by hand with a 24mm open ended spanner that I sawed in half. I guessed at the torque - this should be 60NM according to the service CD that I now have - in other words not especially tight. I could of course remove the camshaft etc and check the torque accurately with a torque wrench and 24mm socket, but with my limited expertise I am reluctant to do this.
Has anyone known one of these valve compensators to become completely loose and fall out, or are they designed not to, and is the 60NM torque setting critical?
I feel a little nervous about the engine with the way in which I have carried out this adjustment, and also thankful that I spotted this issue accidentally while replacing the valve cover gaskets.