Although he's never heard that particular knocking noise before (he brought another Bongo mechanic over for a listen too, who was none the wiser) but isolated it to the area just below of the hydraulic belt tensioner. He said the engine sounds really good otherwise ...
The van is booked in to have belts and covers removed to investigate further - Roy thinks it's likely to the the tensioner itself. If the fault can be confirmed, I'll ask Roy to change the timing belt and cam/crank shaft seals, etc. Water pump was done back Feb by previous owner's garage, so shouldn't need replacing yet, I guess?
The outlook for our lovely Bongo just got a whole lot rosier ... fingers still crossed for no more major nasties.
To recap symptoms for anyone in the future:
- a loud, intermittent knocking coming from within the engine block
- typically takes a few minutes to start, whether engine is hot or cold
- different engine speeds make the knocking louder or quieter. Stopping and starting the engine - even for just a few seconds - stops the noise for anywhere from a minute or two to 10 minutes