I set my valves over a year ago and have been fighting a little puff of white smoke for the last few months. I just put in another set of injectors and still the same. Well looking at my hayes manual it says set the exhaust at .20 inch and intake at .10 inch. I have always used a small feeler gauge I used on my motorcycles and everyone of my exhaust is set to 20mm and intake at 10mm, which is like .004 inch and .008 inches. its a wonder I havent destroyed my engine and several others.:banghead:

--- Update to the previous post...

Ok, got them all set to 19 and 08. It fired up and ran as it should and im gonna check in the morning for the puff of white smoke. When I am at bdc my #5 exhaust is loose and so is the intake. Its not loose enough to get a 2mm gauge in it but its got a little wiggle, is this normal or have I messed up a valve?

Hang on a second...

First off are you setting the VP44 to TDC or BDC?

TDC

BDC

Second off lets stick with american measurements here not metric... 0.010 intake and 0.020 exhaust...

0.010 inch = 0.254 mm

0.020 inch = 0.508 mm

I did half of them at tdc and the other half at bdc. But have ran them all at 4 and 8 for well over a year.

If you wanted to confirm the valve and head condition then I would do a compression test to verify if there is any problems. http://articles.mopar1973man.com/general-cummins/34-engine-system/144-compression-testing

Well I did something different but similar just 2 nights ago - i started a thread on CF.Adjusted valves but whilst feeler was in I tightened down the adjustment screw very tight until it was hard to get feeler out (0.08 and 0.18 from memory). ANyway - started it up and man it was ROUGH - white smoke everywhere and engine stalled. I had figured with feeler in there I was still maintaining clearance.So unset them all and redid as per Mikes instructions - all fine.So I'll sit in the stupid boat with you man - we will still make it As for engine damage - I would think if the engine sounds ok after adjustment, your getting good mpg [compression] and dont have any exhaust/valve ticking/flutter (like a loose/cracked valve) then you should be fine

  JOHNFAK said:

Well I did something different but similar just 2 nights ago - i started a thread on CF. Adjusted valves but whilst feeler was in I tightened down the adjustment screw very tight until it was hard to get feeler out (0.08 and 0.18 from memory). ANyway - started it up and man it was ROUGH - white smoke everywhere and engine stalled. I had figured with feeler in there I was still maintaining clearance. So unset them all and redid as per Mikes instructions - all fine. So I'll sit in the stupid boat with you man - we will still make it As for engine damage - I would think if the engine sounds ok after adjustment, your getting good mpg [compression] and dont have any exhaust/valve ticking/flutter (like a loose/cracked valve) then you should be fine

I saw your thread and was suprised it was the same jonfak I know here. Not trying to beat anyone up, because i make my fair share of mistakes. I do beleive I have seen a thread by ISX that would ease yall's mind. As I remember you can take them to 0 clearance and still not hit the piston. That is what I remember and I am sure ISX will correct me if I am wrong. Not sure if you can cause any other damge unless driven for a long time.

  dripley said:

I do beleive I have seen a thread by ISX that would ease yall's mind. As I remember you can take them to 0 clearance and still not hit the piston. That is what I remember and I am sure ISX will correct me if I am wrong.

yeah I know the thread you mean - it was actually that thread that gave me the confidence/thought to go tighter on the lash clearance but still maintain the feelers ..- but obviously my thought was wrong was really worried I might have dropped a torx bit into the pushrod hole in #6 intake tho - that was a very stressful 6-10 minutes until I found it and got it out.

I have only done mine once and I went to .008 and .016. I havenot noticed any differance in how mine runs so I might go back to spec and see what happens. Did it before I changed injectors and it did quite the engine some but the rv's brought some clatter back. I have heard of tiiming rattle and injector clatter but do not know what the differance is. Still seems to run the same though, except for the gains with the rv's. very nice.

I saw your thread on CF and actually commented in it. :doh:Mine always ran fine and never sounded bad but 4 and 8 is alot tighter thas spec.

Yeah you woulda been fine. It has like 0.070" further than the stock 10 and 20 before it hits the piston. Though this could be different on a 24V but I'm betting you would still be fine down to 0 lash. The only reason it isn't 0 lash on both is because of heat expansion. The exhaust has more lash because the hot exhaust gasses are going past it so it expands more. If it expanded too much then it would push the valve open and cause a small leak.