At 08:55 AM 12/22/99 PST, Richard Bias wrote:
>All,
>  OK, I did it...   Finally.  Last night (I did my heads a couple of weeks
>ago) I adjusted my valves to 6 mils of lash.  My poor wasserboxxer sounds
>like a coffee can, full of ball-bearings, rolling down a hill.  There was
>one adjuster turned all the way in!  I wish I saw that when I put the rocker
>assembly back on.  My idle is a little screwy now.  It is up at about 1600
>RPM.  I am going to adjust the valves today (now that my lifters are "all
>pumped up"!)when I get home.  Will my idle be OK after that, (I hope)?  It
>was fine before I did the adjustment last night.  It doesn't make much sense
>to me.  Thanks for your reply.

Since this is on the vanagon list, I'm assuming your doing the adjustment
to a vanagon.  If you are (and possibly only if) you are dealing with
hydraulic lifters.  These should not be adjusted like a standard, read
solid, lifter.  There is a bit of controversy concerning the proper
adjustment, but the safe bet seems to be to adjust the lifter to 1/2 turn
PAST "0" lash.  The lifters have some give in them by design.  If your
leaving them at .006" lash, then the valves are never fully opening, and
are probably not very consistent in their ability to provide a smooth
operation.

When all else fails, consult the Bentley manual.  If you don't want to
swing in the neighborhood of $90 for the manual, your larger urban
libraries should have a copy to check-out for all your maintenance needs.
Remember that there are very few similarities between the 1600 DP engine
and anything that was ever stuffed into a vanagon.

Good Luck
Chris Smith
'82 Westy
'74 Thing
in outer-chicagoland