thought it might be that so tried pulling away in 1st gear with handbrake up to bring the noise up, with a brave mate leaning over the engine bay, it still sounds like the top of the engine could it be oil starvation to that side of the engine?? i took the oil filler cap off and held the revs up to stop it dying and could not see alot of oil, held hand over the filler then pulled it away there was no oil on it is this right, i could always see the oil going everywhere on my 2.5l vectra????