Cam and tappet carrier for engine

A cam and tappet carrier member for association with a cylinder head member to form a cylinder head assembly for an overhead camshaft engine, said cam and tappet carrier member being adapted to be affixed to the cylinder head member within a cam chamber and defining at least a pair of bearing surfaces for journaling a camshaft on opposite sides of a cylinder bore axis, said bearing surfaces are integrally connected by a bridging member defining at least a pair of tappet bores each of which receives a respective tappet actuated by the camshaft for operating a respective one of a pair of valves supported by the main cylinder head member and serving the cylinder bore, said bridging member defining at least two parallel bores having their axes lying in a common plane for reciprocally supporting thimble tappets, the thimble tappets being associated with valves that are mounted in the cylinder head member and associated with the respective cylinder bore, the axes of the stems of the valves being offset from the axes of the tappet receiving bores in a direction spaced outwardly toward the cam bearing surfaces so as to permit a large valve size and also to permit a large tappet diameter without encroaching upon said bearing surfaces.