Valve issues on a honda pilot

[Chris]

I will try to keep this short. when i got the car, the valves would make a noise at start up but would quiet down after driving it. decided to do a valve adjustment. found sludge inside the valve covers when i did it the first time. adjusted the valves then put the engine back together. noise is louder and will not go away. talked to my friend and said if valves were adjusted correctly, the problem would be the rocker arm and i should look into replacing them on the bad cylinder. decided to check valves again. all were adjusted correctly and i turned the engine 3 times over checking each valve every time. still same noise. noticed the notch on the back cam on tdc is slightly off but does not look like it is a full tooth off but the second mark near the top seems to be aligned (defect from the assembly line?) put sea foam in the crankcase to see if it would quiet the engine a bit. no luck. tried to remove the spark plug to see what i could find. the plug seems to be dry with normal wear (replaced them when i adjusted the valves the first time) noise is coming from cylinder 4 and 5. hate that it is on the rear bank. anyone have any ideas as to what it could be? is my friend correct that it is the rocker arm?

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