Bongo Fury

Personally I'd have expected a proper Bongo cross docking stock to have been fitted by a bongo specialist to allow a proper bleed pipe to be fitted, as per original manufacture, I can't see how raising the front end is sufficient on its own to bleed the bongo effectively, especially if there are any issues. The bleed pipe was fitted for a reason in the first place.
Did you do the cold bleed bit, ie raising & lowering the bleed pipe/funnel to get as much air out as possible? also did you fill the rad first then the header? Did you flush out/check the flow thorugh the matrixes & rad? I'd go around & have a good squeeze of all the hoses to help push it around.
Failing that, I'd give Ian Taylor a ring, if you have any issues created by you messing around with the system, I'd be wary of it invalidating any warranty.

thats why i fitted a bleed hose in the end lol...

i flushed through the system on all the hoses i could get to.

yes i filled rad first, put cap on, filled ex tank, then undid rad cap then place back on...

did cold bleed, went for ages but only the first 5 or 6 lowers caused a burp?!

just a random thought , could it be a damaged water pump, not being man enough to pump water around the system or is it almost certainly an air block?! how can i check if the water pump is doing its job?!

Could be the water pump, but if it was working fine before, it' be a hell of a coincidence for it to go at this point. I'd be wary of the turbo hose being big enough to bleed effectively, not sure if it'd follow the same pattern as with the normal bleed hose. When the engine is revved when bleeding usually a full funnel will "suck down" with the the stat shut (ie below 82-85c) on a normally operating system. I had it in my head that Ian Taylor usually replaces water pump with a head job, but I may be wrong there.
I'd say that you need to give it much longer doing the cold seesawing with a good bit of hose squeezing to get as much air out as possible, big burps are ok, but there's a lot of air gets trapped in there.
Are you sure you've fitted the stat properly, ie the little lug located in the right place & sealing ok? May be worth pressure testing the coolant system.

im pretty certain that the stat is located properly, it may have moved as its quite tricky to line up with all the other pipes in the way...

no the reason i asked about the water pump is that when i first got the bongo last year, there was some sort of copper particles in the coolant, i was wondering if these had damaged the pump in any way?! but i shall speak to ian and see if he has replaced it along with the head, if he has, i better get it booked in for him to sort lol

is there anything else you can think of?

If there were copper particles in the coolant, sounds like previous owner may have used a leak sealer of some sort, especially as you had head issues. On that basis, there's a possibilty of matrix/rad partial blockages, making bleeding difficult. Chemical flush may be in order?

i'll have a word with ian in the new year and see what he suggests. thanks again