Rattly engine?????

Just wonderd do all ti's sound a bit like a deisel? my mrs rover 200vvc sounds bit tappy because of the vvc unit. Ive been told my engine type A? is like a vvc is this right?

Your Variator needs replacing, it does work by (as the name suggests) varying the inlet cam and when they go it makes the car sounds like a deisel. Unfortunately this will mean replacing the cambelt, variator belt, aux belt and all tensioners. Not a cheap job. The variator will not cause any undue problems so if you can live with it then i would leave it til the next cambelt change is due.

what age is the car, does it have a plastic cover on the engine or a metal one?

Platic cover and also the cambelt was changed 20k ago, It doesnt bother me but im used to quite cars.

Ok in that case you either have a CF2 or a CF3 engine, if it has 3 cats and an electronic throttle then its a CF3 if just the one cat and a throttle cable then its a CF2
If you are ok with the noise then just wait until you need to do the belts again in another 16K miles

Engine Identification Alfa CF1/2/3 Engine Identification

If you want to wait out the 16k until the belts are due for change again and do the variator then but don't want to suffer the noise and reduced performance over 4000RPM caused by a worn variator then you could try using 10W60 oil and adding Ametech CSL additive. That shut it up and helped restore performance on mine as a temporary measure. It has also made my engine run much smoother and for a 1000 miles curbed it's hideous oil consumption. Ametech is expensive at @£40/litre, I only bought half a litre and know now I should have got more and installed a proper oil separator and catch tank sooner :-(

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Variator..