Thanks for the warm welcome and all the info.

I think I'll give unleaded a go then. I've got receipts for a rebuilt head within the last few years so with a bit of luck it will be in pretty good nick. I bought some 4 star from a garage the other day at 1.60 a litre..... The fuel appears to be low octane rubbish anyway which is probably far worse!

My chassis number is 275 0497 so it looks like I'm just outside that range. I asked as i spotted some info on 02restoration:

The tii underwent the same head change in mid-1972 as other 2002s, so for half a year, there was a 2002tii with a 121ti head. This early tii used 10:1 compression pistons and was fitted with the larger 46mm intake valves that were later put on al the E12 heads. The resulting 142 horsepower was used to push a 3.45 rear end. At 4000 rpm, where their 3.64 rear end ratio puts most other 2002s at about 70 mph, the early ‘72 tii hums closer to 80. The car is most easily recognized by the black plastic plenum tubes on the engine’s intake; later tiis used metal ones.

James: I live in london, not the best place for a petrolhead i know! The pic was taken at my friends place in Essex though as I thought it would be nicer to work on the car with a bit of space.

Next thing to sort out is a low idling problem causing stalls when dropping the clutch for a few secs. Since oiling up the throttle linkage I'm getting much better engine response and no sticking. Only problem now is that it idles too low after warm up. I've got hold of the fuel injection vid from the tiiregister site so i'll watch that and see how to adjust the idle.