I know its been beaten to death but bear with me...Adjusting Valvetrain

I'm looking at FTI's website and they have directions for adjusting the valvetrain (which I assume are for stud mount stuff since no shims are ever mentioned in there), if someone could verify this for me that would be nice. Also, the reason I am adjusting the valve train is because I am hearing an abnormal ticking from the passenger side VC. I am paranoid of broken valve springs as thats how the old motor blew up. But no broken springs (thank god). However I still dont know what the problem is. I hear about 3-4 ticks every couple of seconds at idle and as the rpms pick up it seems to go away or the sound gets drowned out by the exhaust and the rest of the valve train noise. Either way, it does not get noticably louder with rpms, I pretty much just hear/make it out it at idle. Anyone have any idea as to waht this might be and what I could do about it. Also, how do you guyz turn an assembled motor in the car w/ tranny (5-spd) to adjust the valvetrain. I was thinking about using the starter but I think it would turn the motor over too fast to get the valves slightly open to adjust them, etc. Oh also turning the motor clockwise is mentioned in FTI's directions...Do they mean clockwise from the front of the motor or the flywheel side?

Also, I noticed on the passenger side rockers that 7 of 8 of the rockers turn slightly clockwise/counterclockwise when looking at the head from the top. Are they supposed to have this sideways slop? One of the rockers does not move sideways like the others? Also there is no slop between any of the pushrods, rockers, or valves so the rockers dont "rock" freely at all due to play. Hope this helps describe the problem. Havent had time to check the drivers side yet but hopefully tomorrow.

Sorry this is so long...if you have answers to any of these questions feel free to chime in, especially with the noise issue. -Thank you for the help guyz.

Thanks for the help....Anyone know what my ticking problem could be? Keep the info coming.

I'm sure its not a plug wire. As for priming the lifters before adjustment how would I do this. Also, if I had a collapsed lifter than would I feel any slack in the pushrod?

BTW if it helps with diagnosis, this happend after some hot laps around a community college parking lot. The engine was constantly over 3k rpms but never reved past 6k rpms (all in 2nd and 3rd gears). There was about 10 min. straight of this type of driving with lots of heel and toe downshifting so the motor was changing revs quickly. I pretty much quit after my stomach started hurting (feeling a bit sick) and thats when I noticed the noise. Oh, man I gotta get used to this kinda stuff if I want to road course this car next year. Would not be cool if I was puking out of the window on the straightaways couse the courses made me sick.

Anyways would a collapsed lifter make noise through the entire rpm range? Also, would it get noticably louder w/ rpms?