Appreciation post: a guy at the shop in Tulsa made me rethink valve lash on my 5.9
I always set my 12 valve valves at .010 intake and .020 exhaust cold and called it good. Then a tech named Marcus at a shop off Route 66 in Tulsa mentioned he rechecks lash after 500 miles on every rebuild because heat cycles move things more than people think. I pulled my cover 600 miles after my last adjustment and found the #4 exhaust at .026, so I was wrong to trust one pass. How often do you guys recheck lash after a fresh rebuild, or is that overkill?
Marcus is dead right on this one. Did a full rebuild on my 98 and set everything cold, .010 and .020 just like you. Pulled the cover 800 miles later and had two exhaust valves sitting at .024 and .023. Heat cycles plus that first torque down on a fresh head will move stuff, no way around it. Now I do a recheck at 500 and again at 3000 and it has caught slack every single time.