6CTA Diamond Engine valve Adjustment

[Gavin Nagle]

Purchased a 03 Sea Ray Sedan bridge with 500 hours on both engines. The manual says to adjust the valves at 500 hours. Currently they are running well and have 530 hours each. Has anyone completed the valve job themselves? I am a mechanic working on airplanes primarily and was hoping to find out what is required tool wise, parts, any special procedures, and appropriate valve clearances.

Thank you,

Gavin

Topic

[mark gaudy]

I also have a Sea Ray 400 with the 6c 8.3 so we are probably talking the same animal, but verify your clearances on the tag on the front cover (by the fuel pump) Intake .012 and exhaust .024. Adjustment is straight forward.
No special tools that an aircraft mech won’t have. Metric wrenches, torque wrench, feeler gauges, hex keys. You should be able to reuse the valve cover gaskets, no need to buy any parts. The procedure is outlined in detail in the owners manual as it is easy enough that anybody of reasonable ability can handle it. If you don’t have the manual, I’m sure it’s on you tube somewhere. Good luck.
I should add that if you don’t know how to set each cylinder at tdc, look that up before you start because the port engine timing pin is hard to reach and I could not get the leverage I needed to push it in while rotating the motor with a socket and ratchet on the alternator pulley nut. (15/16″ I think) If you have help, you should not have any trouble rolling the motor over and pushing in the pin at the same time or aligning the marks on the damper and watching the valve train.

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