in answer to the using oil question, yes it does, the car does 400mls per week and has started to use oil although the owner reckons he is still getting 42mpg out of it!
I suspect there something happening in cyl 2 ie valve/sealing fault, we ran a bottle of forte gas treatment through the inlet system which made enough of a difference to enable it to pass the emission test, so the owner has taken it and booked it in next week when we'll stick it on the ega machine and see how its performing then.

Cheers for the responses

Martyn