Sorted now i think! I took off the throttle body which was pretty dirty and gave it a good clean up, did the same with the idle control valve and she is behaving much better. I also adjusted the clutch cable and gave the gear linkages a good cleaning which makes the car feel so much nicer to drive. The gear stick is still a little bit loose so i'll be replacing the linkage bushes next week. Might replace the transmission oil too and see if I an get a really smooth shift.
Once I'm confident that the engine seems in good nick I might start on some performance mods. I'm thinking a de-cat, a panel filter, then I'm wondering if richmods are still avaliable