right been a busy boy again tonight
took timing belt off with plastic plate, took both crank pulleys off so i could take metal plate off the side of engine by the oil pump, dropped oil again, took sump off yet again, there is a definate 2-3mm gap between the oil pump hole and the oil hole in the plate but no adjustment as the plate fits flush and the pump is fixed solid in place. there was no play in the pulley i must have imagined that.
my mate who was with me reckons that the oil pump must be cast and machined wrong as the plate is the original from the car from new. thing is i bought the oil pump from Pitstop developments 2-3 years ago when i was starting to rebuild my engine.
just uploading 2 crappy pics of the gap now