Engine rattle and stalls on cold start up

[05LVH]

Hi guys and girls.

Having an issue with my VE that is shiting me big time.
Car has just done 120,000 and is a 2006 build.

Afew months ago it on cold start it would have the rattling/ clicking sound for about 3 sec and would stall. I took the car to Holden and they diagnosed idler pulleys. I knew this wasnt the case but the wife already gave them the nod to go ahead and replace.
Started the car the next morning and it made the noise again, this time I left the car at Holden for 3 days to diagnoss the fault. At this stage there were no engine fault codes.
They seemded to think it was the timing chains/ cam phaasing. On the trip home I got just around the corner from home and it started running a bit rough and displayed an engine light.
After receiving holdens quote of nearly $3000 to replace the chains etc I was pretty pissed. I parked the car in my garage for 4 weeks before I could bring myself to even start looking at it. After research on JC I ordered the parts myself from USA and started the job myself.
I replaced:-
all the timing chains
tensioners
guides
harmonic balancer
spark plugs

The car has run great, better power, better fuel economy for the last 4 days until yesterday. On cold start at 5am it made the same original rattle/ clicking sound. Then again this morning it made the rattle/ clicking and stalled. When it stalls, you hit the key and it fires straight away and runs fine.

Has anyone else had this issue and what was the fix, if arson wasnt a crime I would have burned this POS long ago.

Any input is appreciated before I throw anymore underserving money at it.
Regards
Jason

[WogBoyz]

Dunno if this is any help, but i wonder if your coils are playing up? not sure about the rattle tho

[05LVH]

who knows with these engines, doesnt sound like spark as it doesnt misfire and it only rattles for app 3secs. once it has done the rattle on start up the car runs beautifully and doesnt miss a beat. It only does it on the initial cold start in the mornings.
Started it at 3am this morning and it was fine.

Has anyone had an issue with the cam phaser? what where the syptoms there?

[05LVH]

bump, anyone got any suggestions