What lies beneath

...the rocker covers?

Today I set about looking under the rocker covers to try and track down a tapping noise.

So far I've managed to get the passenger side cover off (I'll post some pictures later).

I've started on the drivers side but that's quite a bit more involved.

The passenger side looks good - no rocker arms are missing any pads and the engine looks clean and very well cared for despite it's high miles.

I'm hoping the drivers side is the same - which would point towards my failure to identify a blowing exhaust gasket - that would be considerably cheaper than new camshaft, tappets, lifters, rockers etc.

Photos to follow...