18ft lbs Valve Lash Adjuster Locknut
 

I did the valve lash adjustments over the weekend for the first time on the truck. The truck has 140k mi on it. The engine sees a lot of low speed operation and a lot of idle time.

All the intakes had about 18 thou clearance and the exhausts had about 30 thou. I set the intakes to 10 thou and the exhausts to 20 thou.

The locknuts for the lash adjustments were as they they were set at the factory. The recommended torque is 18 ft lbs but, when I loosened the locknuts, it felt like I was applying about 30 ft lbs of torque. When you tighten them, do you only tighten them only to 18 ft lbs? I tightened them to about 25 ft lbs since I was concerned about the locknut coming loose under the constant pounding the valve train is subjected to when the engine is running.

Should I just tighten them to 18 ft lbs next time?

When i did mine I had the same concern, but set them at 18 like it said. Theoil pump requires the same. that also made me nervous.