Hm. It's hard to imagine how a little cardboard material, deriving perhaps
from your temporary fix, would cause serious problems. And the cardboard was
wrapped in... ?

The engine at most pulses gases into the valve cover area: In, out, etc. So
it's not like it would constantly suck the cardboard down there. I assume it
was soaked with oil 450 miles or so later when you finally replaced it.

I think I'd just do those oil changes and have an independent import shop do
a valve lash check and adjust, telling them what happened with the oil fill
cap.

Not that the valve lash somehow is out of whack because of this mishap. Like
you say, the ticking it happening all the time. Rather, it gets the
technicians under the valve cover and subsequently checking things there.

It's hard for me to believe this would cause a serious mal-lubrication
problem, even if driving for 450 miles. That wrapped up piece of cardboard
stayed put, right?

Maybe clean up your PCV valve and connecting pipes, too. That valve can
click with irregular flow. I am using carburetor cleaner on it lately. The
carb cleaner can says to use it on PCV systems, too. I have also used PB
Blaster on the PCV valve.

I dumped some STP gas treatment in my fuel system (twice!) a few months ago
and probably should have done an oil change within two weeks, 'cause now it
seems to be fouling my PCV valve (not seriously, but definitely
noticeably--little waxy carbony oily specks). My mileage is down a bit, too,
even for winter driving.

For the record, how many years and miles on this Civic?

Updates welcome. Hopefully your obviously careful followup will prove this
to be inconsequential.

I'm with Elle and TeGGeR; I doubt there was any identifiable damage.

I had an engine suffer from oil starvation many years ago when the filter
split a seam, and the oil light didn't come on until I pulled off the
freeway to see why there was a cloud of smoke following me. There was a very
noticable swishing sound, like a whattayacallit brush on a drum, that didn't
come from the valve cover and turned into a clear rod knock by the end of
the week. But if you didn't even have the light when you idled I expect
you're okay.

Pilots speak of their engines being "auto-rough in clouds" and I think
that's the deal with the ticking - a valve sound you just didn't notice
before, and now your nerves are on edge.

Mike

Maybe your server has strict filtering... here's what I posted...

On February 15th - my birthday - I was driving down to Florida on I95.
Somewhere in South Carolina near Timmonsville at about 1AM, I made an
ill-fated mistake. While I was at a gas station I decided to check the
oil level in my Civic, and it was a little low; so I get some oil and
start pouring it and this Jamaican guy comes up to me and starts talking
to me about how he likes the way I drive because it keeps him awake. It
was hard to understand him with his accent, and I was too busy
concentrating on him and wasn't paying enough attention to the problem
at hand. Anyways, I closed the hood and drove off, not realizing that I
didn't put the oil cap back on.

So I'm driving down I95S while I finally realize, OH SH*T I FORGOT MY
OIL CAP. I pulled over at the first exit I could find and popped the
hood. There was oil everywhere and the cap was nowhere to be found. I
had to plug it with something because I had a long way to go, and
waiting til morning was not an option since I had an emergency to tend
to down in Florida, so I used the ONLY thing I could which was a wrapped
up piece of cardboard. Now I had a piece of cardboard in the hole that's
supposed to have an oil cap. I can't imagine what that extra paper fiber
and such has done, getting into my oil and doing who-knows-what to my
bearings and every other metal-to-metal connection in the engine.

A few miles down the road, I see "Honda Way" at Timmonsville, and the
big Honda factory off the side of the interstate. I figured I'd pull
over and see if I could get some help. When I pulled up to the guard
station at the outside of the factory, I was met by this black lady with
short hair. I asked her if she could please help me acquire an oil cap,
and I'd be willing to pay just about ANYTHING for the help, but she just
replied that "We don't sell car parts" with a snotty attitude and told
me to drive down the interstate to the nearest Exxon station. Gee...
thanks. I ended up driving the next 450 miles with my ghetto cardboard
oil cap and my fairly-new engine is probably almost ruined. You can't
tell me that they didn't have probably thousands of oil caps in that
factory. This part that costs them a few dollars could've saved me
thousands, but they don't have the courtesy to go a LITTLE out of their
way to help a loyal customer? And to think I would've paid anything for
that cap. It's disgusting.