I got the 300TD home last Thursday and finally got time to work on it today. I decided to start with a valve adjustment, as I figured that a good look at the camshaft would give me an idea as to the condition of the rest of the engine.

After removing the air cleaner, I noticed the bracket was broken, and after removing that noted one of the washers on the mounting bolts was missing - and BTW, so was the bolt that fastens the transmission dip stick tube to the manifold. Disconnecting the linkages I managed to loose one of the circlips (the one securing the shaft from the throttle pedal).

Once the valve cover was off, all the cam lobes looked nice and shiny (under a coating of black oil), so I am feeling better about the engine.

I went through the valves as detailed in the MB CD, and found everything was way too tight, except for exhaust valves 2 & 3, which were spot on. I haven't had this much fun since I used to adjust valves on my Beetle. The offset wrenches from Diesel Giant worked very nicely.

The old valve cover gasket was completely stiff - it broke as I stuffed it into the trash bag. No wonder the transmission and bottom of the car are so liberally coated with black tar! In the process of re-installing the valve cover, I pinched one of the fuel return lines. No problem - I was going to replace the hoses anyway, but it meant I wasn't going to start the car today!

Since the hood was up, I liberally oiled all the hinge points, and the hood now pops up nicely when I pull the release.

So far so good - next I drain the little bit of diesel left in the tank (along with whatever has accumulated in there while the car was parked for a year), and a laundry list of projects to go...