engine making clakking noise

Hi


My name is Eric

I need some help to figure out where the is noise comming from

my boat is a 1990 seaswirl with a omc 5.0L cobra outdrive

i ran the it low on oil. when got home i pull the valve cover cuz it sounded a loud iifter or maybe a rocker arm

i found some of them were loose are they suppose to have alot of side play?

to answer the question about the play it just depends on where that valve is in the rotation of the cam but best way I have found is to turn engine over at the balancer with ratchet turn till one valve on the particular cylinder is compressed so the other valve should be completely closed this will be the one you adjust you can get some feeler gauges and find out what correct seeting should be but I just look at the push rod and tighten it till I can barely twist it with my fingers now all this is assuming you have adjustable rockers if you don't while turning the engine over make sure both valves on each cylinder is moving all the way down and up if not could have a wiped cam lope

Ford or chevy flavor 5.0?

sorry it's ford

Oh another thing the motor still run s smooth . if it was a rod wouldn't it sound like a hard knox? It still has 40 # oil psi when warm