My stock b16 sounds like a "mini" diesel, (u know that tick tick tick...sound) i asked Honda and they said that it have been many Honda Civic's 5g with that sound. It came from Honda with this sound, so it isnt any mechanical problem!

Did u ever heard about something like this??

btw, my b16 have 12k euro miles on it...

 

It's loose valves, the rocker pads that actually touch the valve heads get little indentions in them, and feeler guages will say they're adjusted in spec, when actually they're off by however much the groove is deep. The only alternative is to adjust them by hand, but then you run the risk of setting them too tight and ruining a lot of things in the head [lost motion assemblies, burnt valves, etc].