noisy valvetrain

[grassulo]

I have a 1987 GMC S15 2wd pickup with the 2.8L V6, I think its a gen one but I'm not sure, anyway there seems to be clicking coming from my valvetrain on both sides, this may just be a normal sound that I'm not used to, this is the oldest vehicle my family has, so my prior experience was on a 98 Saab 900 and a 98 Mercury sable. The truck has 177k miles on it and the previous owner had a thing for loose bolts, I'm finding them everywhere in that motor. It runs fine, except for the tapping coming from the valve covers. When I bought the truck both valve covers were loose and leaking oil, so I replaced the gaskets and properly torqued their bolts, but when I had the covers off, I remember taking a rocker in my hand and was able to rock it side to side atleast an eighth of an inch, is this kind of play normal for these rockers, and could this possibly be the source of the noise, or is it just me being so used to working on more modern overhead cam engines. I also had a 2.8L gen 3 cutlass ciera for awhile, which didnt make any noises like these. I can even mic and attach sound clips of the noise if that would help.

-Garret

[geoffinbc]

Uh yea sounds a little loose. You should go in and re lash all the valves. It should be pretty much silent.