OK, while I'd got the head off and sundry other stuff out of the way, I thought it'd be an idea to change the timing belt, which according to the service record has done about 40K miles.
the belt that's come out has been eaten by the famous timing belt pulley misalignment fault thing to the extent of about 2mm off one side of it; so:
a) is it going to do that repeatably (i.e. if I put a new belt on, will it just eat 2mm in 40K miles, or will it eat it more rapidly)?
b) is it worth trying to source the necessary mods and fit 'em?
My current thought is that if it's only worn 2mm off in 40K miles, it can't be far out, and it may not be worth the extra hassle and expense and delay in getting the parts to modify it. The key point is whether a replacement belt will suffer significantly more damage. I'm quite happy to change it at
36K mile intervals, which is only going to be about every 3 years for the mileage the vehicle does, but if the wear rate is apt to be random, then that's not really safe.wot d'yer all think?