Freelander 1 1.8 K series Oil in Water

Hi everyone, drained and flushed the water system and drained refilled the engine with new oil as unsure when this was previously done. Engine runs absolutely fine with no overheating at all. However there is a skim of oil in the header tank (I cleaned this out completely before starting) so oil is getting into the water works! Is this head gasket or could it be water pump or is there anywhere else that this could be happening? Don't believe I'm losing water, but will have to wait and see when I drive it around. Thoughts/views appreciated.

Could be just residue of sludge via the radiator, check spark plugs for colour signs also oil cap for milky residue.

Hi, Thanks for this... There is no mayo or milky residue in oil cap, or on top of the cam cover gasket (which is also new) and I don't think it is residue in the header tank from the rad as it was blackish, not milky in any way. I'll check the spark plugs - what am I looking for specifically? As I said, it is running fine, and no overheating - the gauge sits mid-way with no deviation (even the electric fans are not having to cut in). Just worried that driving will cause more/new/additional problems - but my current thinking is, this is better than having water in the oil!

Any bubbling in the expansion tank?

Hi there, nope, no bubbling in expansion tank. Water does come from the Rad into the top of the expansion tank, but nothing bubbling up from below.....

It's either residue from a previous HG change or the HG is starting to delaminate around the oil feed to the head. It's much easier for oil to get into the coolant that point than coolant to get into the oil. If there's no evidence of the HG being changed previously, then I'm afraid you're likely looking at a HG change. Do it early, before it causes reliability problems later.