I am getting a small tick in the valve cover on the drivers side of my engine. I have been doing some reading and was wondering if my lifters or valves needed to be adjusted. I am pretty mechanically inclined and know the proper technique for finding TDC and also for adjusting the rocker arm bolts and pushrods themselves. I am hoping that by adjusting them, I can eliminate the tick that I am getting. However before I attempt to do this I want to be sure about everything. Does anybody know for sure which is the compression valve and what is the exhaust valve or how to tell the difference. I have heard that in Chevy's the order goes from EI, IE, EI, IE if you are standing at the front of the engine looking down toward the rear. Does anybody know if this is correct? Or is there a better way to differentiate between the two? Any information would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

By compression valve I assume you mean intake?

The easiest way to tell which valve is intake and which is exhaust is to look at the valve and it's orientation relative to the header/exhaust manifold primary. The valves that line up directly with the header/exhaust manifold primaries are the exhaust valves.

 

EI, IE, EI, IE
Front to back or back to front, it's the same.