I am lucky if it does break I can just get an AU XR6 motor quick and cheap but the choice would be VCT or non VCT then.

Could be two separate problems.

A car sitting around unused for a long time can get condensation in the fuel tank. This water sits at the bottom of the tank and gets picked up when sloshing around while the car is moving, causing the engine to splutter (water doesn't ignite well). Can be fixed by throwing a bit of methylated spirits or other alcohol in the tank (max 1% of the fuel) or using an ethanol-blended fuel, if it's available. Alcohols will mix with both water and petrol, so will basically absorb the water evenly throughout the fuel.

If you are getting a rattle in gear, but not in neutral or park, check the torque convertor flex plate bolts. They tend to come loose on the EF/ELs. If the sound seems to be coming from the back of the engine block, this could be your culprit. You will find the bolts behind the steel shield on the bottom half of the front of the transmission. The fix is to remove each bolt, put some loctite on and tighten it up (one bolt at a time).

Just a couple of possibilities.

The splutter issue I think has been sorted. I gave the plugs a clean and replaced the bosch gas leads with 10.5mm Queensland Performance Ignition Leads and that part seems fine now.

Fuel wise the tank only had E10 in it but as mentioned above I think that part is sorted.

Rattle wise I will check that out but the rattle happens both in gear and in park or neutral. The reason the car was taken off the road originally was to replace the gearbox

Poor car. Runnen it on e10. You monster!

E10 is great at preventing condensation problems. But, ironically, they recommend not using it in anything that is going to be parked up for a while. Ethanol is hygroscopic - it not only absorbs, but also attracts, moisture. That might have been part of the spluttering problem. Glad it's sorted now.

In theory, E10 should be great for a performance engine - an octane increase and about 1% more power (it adds oxygen), but about 3% higher fuel consumption. My EF never seemed to run that well when I used it; Mobil 98 works well, so I'm sticking with it. And don't spill E10 on your paint - it's like paint stipper; will give your clearcoat a matt finish in 10 minutes.

e10 will do f**k all for performance considering its octain is still under premium unleaded, but e85 will do a lot for performance with 105 octain, proving there is a tunning option to add about 30% more fuel...

ethanol is not as evil as people think.

I dont really have a choice fuel wise where I am, Its either e10 or diesel and I think the e10 would be the better choice

Can't believe noone thought it was a spark problem to start with.. I thought it was a rule of thumb to check spark when that happens lol..