Question about valve adjustment.
 

Hello Fellas.

Just for the sake of maintainance, I'm going to look into adjusting my lifters, as I never have touched them before.
About this job however, I have some questions:
I know that the older d24t's used Buckets and shims, and the later ones used hydraulic tappets.
Unfortunately I have an engine from another car, where I don't know the date of manufacture. Is there any easy way to determine whether you has buckets and shims or hydraulic tappets, if you remove the valve cover? (Detailed answer to this question is very appreciated).

As I understand the bucket and shim setup, you first need to record the valve clearances and the REMOVE the CAMSHAFT just in order to alter the shims under the buckets. Is this true?

Then I would just like to know a couple of specs, as I do not have the green book for the motor service:
1. Injector opening pressure for the turbocharged version (D24T).
2. Intake and exhaust valve clearance (D24T).

Kind Regards, Ragnar.

Partially true. Yes measure and record present valve clearances, but Camshaft stays in place when removing/replacing shims. There are tools to depress the bucket, and to extract the shim.

Hazet tool 2574
Attachment 397

Valve shim pliers
Attachment 398

The hydraulic lifter motors are hard to tell externally but it's easy when the valve cover is off. Mechanical lifters (the ones that require adjustment) are an upside-down bucket with a disc set in the top, underneath the cam lobe. Hydraulic lifters just have a smooth top with no disc. If you can't see an obvious place to put an adjusting shim disc in the top of the follower, then the lifters are hydraulic.

Definitely NOT true! ;) That would be a miserable process... The tools needed to do it with cam in place are easy to find. The depressor tool needs to be for an Audi engine, not VW -- the diameter of the cam is slightly different so the tool meant for a 4-cylinder VW (e.g. Golf diesel engine) does not work. However anything that works on an Audi 5 cylinder engine, will do the job.

1. 155 bar - best to make initial setting around 160-163 since opening pressure falls off a bit as new nozzle wears in.
2. Cold: Intake 0.15mm-0.25mm, Exhaust 0.35mm-0.45mm
Hot: Intake 0.20-0.30, Exhaust 0.40-0.50

It's always better to adjust cold if you can, after engine has sat for many hours without running, since if you attempt adjustment on a warm engine then the temperature will change during the time you are doing the job making your measurements less accurate.

Thanks a lot for the help guys! This covered all my curiosity.