Abstract: A valve tappet for internal combustion engines with an overhead cam shaft veably mounted in the sliding guide directly between the cam and valve stem and which is designed as an automatic play compensating element comprising an outer part and an inner part guided in one another for longitudinal displacement and enclosing between them a pressure chamber connected by a non-return valve to an oil storage chamber charged with oil from the lubricating system of the engine, the outer part cooperates with the sliding guide and the cam and the inner part cooperates with the valve stem, the oil storage chamber being arranged inside the outer part so that it extends exclusively in the radial direction around the inner part and having in its lower portion an oil feed bore and at least one oil transfer bore to the pressure chamber, an oil carrying passage adjoining the oil feed bore inside the oil storage chamber opening freely into the oil storage chamber in the upper portion thereof, the oil carrying passage being form