I imagine you could do that. In fact, lots of heavy duty diesels (NTC Cummins and John Deere) set their valves cold.
The thing that would prevent me from cold setting the valves is the small lash amount (.006?) on the intakes. With that small of a gap I would prefer to have the engine warmed up to specs so that the adjustment would be perfect.
The cam is ground so that the valve leaves and returns to the seat gently. Once the lash is taken up the cam profile becomes much steeper and quickly opens the valve to the maximum, and the reverse is true when the valve closes. If the valve lash is too great, the valve will tend to 'slam open and slam shut'. This is VERY hard on valve train components. If the lash is insufficient, the valve will not fully contact the seat and transfer it's heat to the seat. A burned valve quickly results.
I think before I completely trusted the cold setting method, I would have to see VERY consistant results between hot and cold lash readings.
