I finally got around to adjusting the valves in my 1980 240D, and man was it a job!! It had been at least 75,000 miles because Ive owned it that long. I dont know if the previous owner had done anything. Yeah I know, beat me with a wrench. I have heard that they should be adjusted every 15k, so I figured I better have a look because last winter the car didnt start easily(interestingly, the car seemed to only fire on one cylinder on startup. The data below shows why.)I purchased two angled wrenches and a shorter wrench which supposedly made the job easier. I bought a valve cover gasket, and some mercedes fuel injection return hose, because I figured I might as well change the hoses while I was in there.
Well anyway, when I finally got the fan ,fan shroud(I had to take those off to get to the crankshaft nut to turn the engine), air cleaner(the pcv hose was loose), and the valve cover off of the engine,I inspected the gap of the valve lashes and knew it needed some work. I got my wreches out and started to adjust that distance(I never used the shorter wrench). My son worked the feeler guage and I adjusted. The pre-job gaps for the intake, in no particular order were 0.000in, 0.000in, 0.000in, and 0.004in. They were all supposed to be at 0.004in. For the exhaust gap, which was supposed to be 0.012in, the distances were 0.010in, 0.008in, 0.008in, and 0.006in. Way off. So we adjusted all 8 of them,double checked them and then put the valve cover on with the new gasket. Then we put the throttle assembly and the hoses on...that was fun. We then put the air filter back on, repairing the loose pcv connection. Then the really fun part...putting the fan and shroud back on(it was also hard to get it off). I had to loosen the alternator to do that. Well the job is done and it will be interesting to see if anything improves. The car seems to start a little faster and I'll check the fuel economy next week. Its been getting around 26mpg, with mostly highway driving. The reason the car last winter seemed to want to start on one cylinder was because I only had one cylinder properly adjusted.
I only have one question, when I was putting on the vacuum hoses to the top of the cover, I noticed that the "Y" rubber connector seemed to have a restriction in it. Not knowing if this was right, I took a coathanger and pushed the restictor out of one of the Y legs. Does anyone know if it is suposed to be there and on which leg of the Y.(What does the restrictor leg of the Y connect to)?? Without it in, I drove the car and it shifts OK. The restrictor has a pinhole in the center and it slides tightly into the rubber Y. Thx for any imput. By the way, the whole job took us 6 hours.

Joe