Changing the alternator over this afternoon, (got it down to 30minutes from bonnet up to Alt off the car!) and decided to re-torque the head bolts. That went well and after 200,000km I felt it was a good thing to do. But the best thing is the cleanliness of this engine after all this time, warranting this post.
Many years ago, soon after purchasing the Linear Estate, I dropped the sump, cleaned it so it gleamed, installed the PCV #4 kit, and ran a strict regime of fully synthetic oils on 10K intervals ever since. I have never taken the camshaft cover off and I don't think it has ever been off the car since being built back in 2001.
Lifting the cover saw a moment of trepidation as you would expect, given the history of this model engine and the era. I could NOT believe what was before me. A delicate slightly yellow tarnish and clean surfaces everywhere. The cam lobes were perfect with zero wear, the oil galleries were clean and the was virtually no build up around the chain area at all. And that wiped clean with some wax and grease remover. Torqued the head bolts up, cleaned the gaskets with wax and grease remover and glued it all back together. I am stunned TBH, and am very pleased to report that everything that has been posted on this forum around this topic has been vindicated and verified as being the correct solution. I really do think that this engine is capable of doing another 200K.
Just got to keep all the systems around it going....
