Hi All,
Short story long :-
I'm the recent proud owner of a 2007 S Type R with approx 46000 miles on the clock.
I bought it privately with a known 'rattle' on startup from cold which disappears after about a second.
The seller, who I have every reason to believe knows about such things, advised me it was lack of oil in the VVT stuff & if I could put up with it It wouldn't cause any damage!
Because I really like the car & hope to keep it for a good few years I took it to my local main dealer for a health check & confirmation of the cause of 'rattle'.
The car is, thank goodness, in very good general condition but because the engine was hot they couldn't detect the 'rattle'.
They did however say that it couldn't be VVT related as the engine was too early to have VVT & the rattle was almost certainly a timing chain issue!
Internet searches so far indicate that S Type Rs were initially fitted with engine code AJ33S (non VVT) & later AJ34S (with VVT).
Unfortunately I've not been able to determine when the AJ33S was upgraded to the AJ34S or when the AJ34S was fitted to the S Type.
Some sites seem to imply that the AJ34S was fitted from 2003 - 2008!
I can see there is a lot of in depth knowledge out there so I am hoping someone is still awake & able to enlighten me.
Regards
Ted