I had the heat shield off yesterday and i couldn't see any soot buildup.
I have just had my mate around, and holding it between 1.5k and 2k revs there is a pretty loud slapping, metallic noise coming from the rear half of the engine. It definitely doesn't sound to nice
I'm starting to think I might have to bite the bullet and get it put on a flatbed and taken to either Mao or someone like that.