Hi, haven't posted for a while, but I finally managed to fix the dreaded tappet rattle on our '02 plate V6 Sport. After almost 2 years of racket, a simple change of grade and type of oil has rendered it silent. May not work for everyone, but we used Castrol Edge 0-40 fully synth, and it's a different car. Interestingly, it's also just passed the M.O.T. emissions test with a decat pipe fitted, which has made life easier....I still have to put the cat back on for the Evo, so it's one less thing.
Seems that the grade of oil has to begin with 0, and be fully synth on this ( our 2nd V6 ), whereas our previous W plate V6 is still going strong ( and silently ) as a taxi on 10-40 and has 130,000 miles on it now, without ever having had an engine related problem. Seems like the earlier ones may have the better, or at least, less fussy engines.
Hope this works for others, I know that people have been trying all sorts of things for years to resolve this,
Cheers, Andy.