I recently purchased a Honda Accord 5 speed that had a broken valve, I drove it like that for 20 miles and it drove pretty bad until I parked it (No tapping sound at the time just flashing CEL)

I took the head off, got it resurfaced, new valves, timed the valves to spec and out on a new belt and water pump. Ran good for a few days and then developed a tapping sound coming from the front of the engine, it’s noticeable at lower RPMS (1200) and not so much at 2000 rpm’s and higher.. not noticeable in the car only when I’m outside.

it wasn’t doing this when I first got it running but now it is.. also seems to be running rich as well (Greyish black smoke from exhaust and spark
plugs show it’s burning more fuel than it should)

car was running sluggish until I replaced the VTEC solenoid when it was running rich and now it’s running normal (Haven’t checked spark plugs since)

It sound slightly reduces when the car is warm but not much.

it has it 165k on the car, does burn some oil but compression shows 175 to 180 across all cylinders.

The machine shop told me the head looked to be overheated at some point in its life or someone did a bad job resurfacing it prior but I’m not sure, the temp has never gotten above the halfway point for me even in sitting traffic.

any ideas on what it could possibly be would be greatly appreciated.

i attached a video of the sound.

 

It sounds like all of my Hondas, they all seem to have that little rattle.

I have older Hondas (89-93), but the things to start looking for are:

Does one spark plug looking fouled? If yes, the issue is with that cylinder.

Is this a solid lifter engine? If yes, does that one valve just need adjusted?
If hydraulic, is the one lifter not filling up at lower rpms?
With fresh head work, it could be as simple as that.

In both cases, the valves would close all of the way and you would have compression, so the valves should be fine.