Ok so I spent all of my evening in the shop letting the CRX cool and adjusting the valves, there has been a slight ticking and I wanted to take care of it. We have an autocross tomorrow with the PCA (Porsche Club of America). So I adjusted the valves after letting the engine cool for 4 hours. I thought everything was to spec, I even used a torque wrench on the lock nuts for the tappets. I started it up and the ticking is much worse! Also it doesn't sound as smooth at high RPM, and you can hear the ticking come down with engine speed. What is going on here, am I going to hurt my car if I keep driving it? I would really like to race tomorrow but I don't think it's going to happen, I'll plan to fix the problem but I don't know what to do other than check the valves again. If someone can help me ASAP it might be possible for me to get it going in the morning before I have to leave, I would really appreciate that. The car is a 1990 CRX Si with the D16A6, with an intake and a P&P.

 

Re-do the valve adjustment. It seems that you directly affected the ticking by messing with the valves, so my guess would be it has to do with the valves.