In this paper, the motion of a finger-follower type cam valve system with a hydraulic tappet was analytically and experimentally studied. First, the exact contact point between cam and follower for each corresponding cam angle was searched by kinematic analysis. Then a 6 degree of freedom lumped spring-damper-mass model was constructed to simulate the valve motion analytically. When constructing the model, most of the parameters were experimentally determined. But several values which are difficult to derive experimentally such as damping coefficients were determined with engineering intuition. In order to show the effectiveness of the analytical model, the predicted cam-valve motion was directly compared with the measured valve and tappet motions.