engine rattle noise NOT the exhaust shield

[sh0rtlife]

so basically since the car was new its had an odd rattle, sometimes its worse than others, but its officially annoying as hell and on my sh!t list to fix

its tinny and rattly and i assumed it was a heat shield but nothings loose

today i went out with a nice chunk of sound deadner and covered over the exhaust, no change, covered the intake side, minimal change, covered the front timing cover area and whoa sound almost gone, so its deffinatly front side noise, im going to pull the belt and see if noise changes

so..whats the deal?...the car has about 160k on the clock..kilometers not miles, and is a 07 canadian 5dr

it does seem to "fade" a bit when warm and in the summer, its way worse in the winter months