right, get it all running, sounds ok from teh cam now, but the lower knocking worried me, so took it to the mechs who i always use down near me work, and the general concensus was:
''drive it until it blows up pal, its a volkswagen....anyways, you can pick the engines up for next to nothing''
so, i know it might sound like im being careless and not looking after the poor old girl, but its gonna cost me alot more to find out what the problem is by stripping it, and i need it for work, so until next year when i go back to uni, im gonna have her tuned and leave it at that. well...until something else goes wrong!
all in all, quite happy now though, she drives fine so cant complain.
rob