The trouble is it's as quiet as a mouse on tickover, now that i've fixed the timing ballsup, but there is still something rattling at the front of the head on what seems to be the exhaust side when I rev it, so I would of thought that if it was the lifters rattling ie: not pumped up properly then this would be heard on tickover.

As for the crank side of things by lowering the car of the jack this in turn turned the rear wheels a small amount which in turn turned the crank because I forgot to take it out of gear, so then shorley the piston would have made contact with a valve because the cambelt was not on and possibly bent a valve.

Sorry that I've almost repeated myself but I'm just trying to explain things a bit better.

And cheers for the replys lads.