Here I have opened the valve cover and performed the valve
adjustment. What is amazing is that this may be the first
valve adjustment done on this engine in its 2020 hrs of life. Of
the 6 valves, 3 were in-spec, and the other 3 were off only
2-3 thousandths, both loose and tight. This shows that you can
get away with infrequent valve adjustment. Still not advised.
The valve adjustment was easy: I just turned the crank with a wrench
until I was sure each valve was closed, then used my feeler guages.
Here is another write-up on adjusting the valves (by ARRABIL):
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...ating/183025-42-43-4400-valve-adjustment.html
By far the hardest part of the adjustment was cleaning the area over
the injectors before I opened the valve cover. Normally, I clean
everything I can before opening anything sensitive, but getting to this
area was very difficult. Once I had the muffler off, I had some access,
but I no longer wanted to use water because of the open manifolds. I
used picks and air to chisel away an inch or so of buildup on the intake side
of the head. When I got it to where I dared to open the valve cover,
I still got a few pieces of dirt on the valve train. I very carefully cleaned
all that before rotating the engine.
This is how most of us would have to adjust the valves. The previous
4300 benefited tremendously from having the engine out and meticulously
clean.