So I got a decent deal on a 1990 Accord ending up getting it for 250. Guy said he forgot to check the oil and it died on him. He brought it to me and he said it started right up but ran very rough. Turns out there was a ton of oil in cylinders 3 and 4 and all plugs were fouled out. I replaced the plugs, wires, valve cover gasket and intake gaskets. It runs better than before and doesn’t shut off. Only thing is now it runs but idles at like 200RPM and oil in the plugs again until it burns off and some ticking noise can be heard. I will post a link for the video someone said it might just be a rocker.

 

Being a lite sounding tic, I would say it is a head issue, very likely a standard Honda tic or the valve lash needs to be reset.

Old Honda's with old Valve seals will smoke for a min when you first start them. Just keep an eye on the oil level, especially if you do a lot of highway driving.

A knock upon start-up that goes away is the beginning of a rod bearing going out. This is a deep and lower in the engine noise (not heard here).

 

+1 on tappets being the noise- and adjusting the gaps will diminish the noise some. The fuel injectors are also noisy normally- and nothing to be done about that.