Because I think I have it. From around cylinder 2 I have this tap tap tap tap sound in the head that doesn't go away when the car warms up.

I just swapped a new head on from a newer car since my old one's valve guides (I believe) were trashed and it burned oil like a ************.

Anyways, I put the new valve pusher thingies that sit under the cam and adjusted the exhaust gap to .007 of an inch and the intake to .004 of an inch when cold. At least I think I did. I kind of improved my technique as I moved on so maybe the earlier ones were a little off.

But the noise is pretty noticeable, could it be where the cam pushes the valve? Or can a valve itself make a sound like that? I had one jacked up valve that got jammed in the open position until the piston tapped it then it would snap back closed. Replaced that, but it makes me wonder if the other valves could be a little jacked.

 

are you running a cast manifold or header? it could just be an exhaust leak from a warped flange or cracked header primary, they make a similar sound

 

its an ebay header. It was on the old head and never made a sound. Although I did switch from a graphite gasket to a double metal one.

 

id check that first, probably just a leak, look really closely at any welds too, a crack can be barely visible sometimes but air will still get out of it

 

ya, I checked. Its not a leak. Its way too loud for that. I think I just messed up on the valve adjustment a bit.