Ticking in my valve train

[ejp2fast]

My wife has a 01 Honda Civic EX couple. I did the head gasket and valves 4 months ago. I adjusted the clearance for the intake and the exhaust according to the manual (0.009-0.011 for exhaust and 0.008-0.010) for intake..... i talked with some guys and actually did the exhaust at 0.008 and the intake at 0.007...
I still have some ticking..?? why is this?

[jglutz]

The noise could be a bunch of things.
I would double check the clearance numbers and then your set up.
Typically, the lighter/lesser the sound the higher up in the train the noise, rocker area. The louder, the lower in the train, spings or seats.

A very common valve trian noise problem is the clearance between the rocker arm and rocker shaft....not that the clearance goes bad...but rather...a burr/gall developes in the ID of the rocker arm near the oil hole in the shaft....making the arm sticky. To fix it, the arm has to be removed and the rockers slid off and inspected. If you find a burr (scab of metal) it can be picked at with and exacto knife or stoned smooth.

[scitzz]

When you say you did the valves, what exactly did you do? Did you just replace the stem seals, or did you lap them in? replace the valves?

Also, your post says you actually went UNDER the factory specs, what would be the reason, mods? You may need to get into factory range, it would be my choice to get right in the middle, .010 exhaust, and .009 intake, if those are the correct numbers and no mods....

[ejp2fast]

All new valves, stem seals, lapped at the machine shop. Intake side doesn't get as hot as exhaust, plus it is common to be on the low end of the tolerance, even a hair under. No mods. The shop installed the rocker assembly....