HELP! bad ticking?

I had some bad sounds coming out of my the top end of the motor. I had the mechanic at my work look at it and he said that it was a knock and that it was bad, Because it wasn't doing this about a week or more ago. But a have been racing the car around since then cause I just got a tack for my car and didn't have one before, and just found out that the redline starts at 7900 rpm. I've never had a car that starts to redline there. But anyway back to what was saaying, I was pissed that the car was knocking and had a valve adjustment done by my friend who's a mechanic across the street and it turned out that all the valves were really really tight. And found out that that didn't madder because while the knocking is gone now it sounds like theres something loose rattling in the valve cover on the right side. It dosn't look like the springs are broken or loose cause the springs are all really stiff still. One guy sayed that it could be the piston ring but unlikly because the sound is so high in the motor. Need any advice or help you guys can offer??? :confused:

did your friend loosen one a bit too much?? id double check to make sure.

No we double checked after we tightened them down. And today the knock back. The mechanic at my shop keeps thinking that a piston is bad cause there is a little piston slap. Also I checked the vacoom pressure at the intake manifold and it's steady like it should be so he said that means the rings are good and no broken or loose springs and no valves sticking. So I'm at a loss for words as to what to do? He said wait till it gets loud to rip the engine apart and it will be easier to find but who wants to risk more damage?

maybe your valve is starting to hit the piston due to a bad spring??? Im not sure if this could happen but im trying to think of anything possible

What about the lost motion assembally?