Freelander 1 timing issue

Hi guys, hope someone can help. Had my Freelander sitting in the drive way for 2 yrs ( got a company car) with a blown head gasket. Just got around to replacing the gasket the other day but having a major headache getting the timing to line up on both the cam sprockets and the crank at the same time. My question it this. Is it possible that I have bent the valve stems turning the crank by hand ( the cam belt was not attached). I felt a fair bit of resistance at 2 points then it was fine to turn. Was the resistance due to valves hitting pistons or just because the car had been sitting idle for 2 years and pistons were a little seized. By the way when I rotated the crank the cam sprockets were lined up at TDC. Any help would be appreciated.

I don't know about the valves but my tip for lining the cam pulleys is to get the crank lined up (with the alternator belt pulley off so you're certain is correct) then get the cam pulleys lined up perfectly.
Feed the belt around the crank and jam it in place with clothes pegs or similar and feed it up to the exhaust pulley.
You will never get it on the exhaust pulley with it correctly lined up so carefully turn the exhaust pulley back half a degree or so, just enough to get the belt on and turn it back so the belt is now tight.
Then feed around the rest of the pulleys.
Note it might help to get it around the water pump etc if the tensioner is VERY loose.
Another thing to watch for is the pins in the centre of the cam pulleys must be in the correct positions for their respective pulleys. If not 100% certain take off the cam pulley bolts and check.

Thanks Alibro, yeah I was using the timing mark on the alt belt pully so maybe it's this that is a little out. Will take off the pully tomorrow and time it properly. Just hope all my work ain't in vain with bent valves....

I believe the most common issue is folk get the exhaust cam and the crank pulleys one tooth out cause they try to fit the belt with both of them in the correct positions. In my (limited) experience it's not possible so the two cam pulleys end up half a tooth out. By turning the exhaust pulley back a hair you can fit the belt and tighten it correctly.
Hopefully you haven't wrecked the valves but.....

Cheers Alibro, very helpful mate.

My experience has been that when everything is carefully lined up as per w/s manual, and yes I do use the cam locking tool, then the belt slips on fairly easily.
I work my way around clockwise beginning at the crank pulley. I only partially put it on each part ie: water pump pulley, inlet cam, exhaust cam, crank pulley. I go around a 2nd and 3rd time slipping it on a bit more each time until it's fully 'on'. Then I carefully line up and bolt on the crank alternator pulley and then deal with the cam belt tensioner. Then I do 2 or 3 rotations to make sure all is well. As mentioned above the critical bit is carefully lining up those cam pullies...

Thanks all. I have discovered that there is conflicting info regarding the correct position of the cam sprockets when timing. Some pics show the exhaust writing upside down whilst others show it the right way up. Any help?

Dean Stranieri said:

Thanks all. I have discovered that there is conflicting info regarding the correct position of the cam sprockets when timing. Some pics show the exhaust writing upside down whilst others show it the right way up. Any help?

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The CAM pulleys should have the arrows pointing at each other perfectly level. If they are slightly out with the crank pulley correct then you're probably one tooth out. See my previous post here.
I don't know about the writing but the crucial thing is the centre pin is in the correct position for the pulley. That is you need to remove the pulley bolts and check the pin for the exhaust pulley is to the side of the slot marked EXH and the inlet pulley has the pin at the INL position.
Take a look here
https://www.the-t-bar.com/forum/21-david-aiketgate-s-guides/26020-timing

Dean Stranieri said:

Thanks all. I have discovered that there is conflicting info regarding the correct position of the cam sprockets when timing. Some pics show the exhaust writing upside down whilst others show it the right way up. Any help?

Click to expand...

The cam pulleys need to be different between inlet and exhaust. However to reduce production costs, Rover developed a combination pulley, which is marked and keyed for both inlet or exhaust cams.

To make them work, the relevant pin is used, depending on which cam the pulley is fitted to, i.e. exhaust pin in exhaust cutout, and the word EXHAUST facing the INLET pulley mark, which should be pinned in the IN cutout of the pulley.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Here's the picture of the cam pulleys, and how they're orientated, that Ali was talking about.

Nodge68 said:

The cam pulleys need to be different between inlet and exhaust. However to reduce production costs, Rover developed a combination pulley, which is marked and keyed for both inlet or exhaust cams.

To make them work, the relevant pin is used, depending on which cam the pulley is fitted to, i.e. exhaust pin in exhaust cutout, and the word EXHAUST facing the INLET pulley mark, which should be pinned in the IN cutout of the pulley.

Hopefully that makes sense.

Here's the picture of the cam pulleys, and how they're orientated, that Ali was talking about.
View attachment 204471

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Yip, except you can't see the pins in this pic. You need to take the bolts out to see them but the pulleys should stay put without the bolts.

Alibro said:

Yip, except you can't see the pins in this pic. You need to take the bolts out to see them but the pulleys should stay put without the bolts.

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Yes that's quite correct Ali. The washers hide the pins. Providing the pulleys haven't been removed from the cams, then they should be in the correct pins.

Well, thank you for all your help thus far. So, got it all back together, fired it up and it's running on only 3 cylinders....grrr. the cylinder closest to the cam sprockets is not working and causing the engine to idle rough. I'm happy to dig deeper but can anyone tell me if this might have been caused by turning the crank by hand previously and bending the valve stems. I fear I may have had the cams in the incorrect position when setting the timing on the crank (cam belt obviously not attached). If this is likely to be the cause I think I'll cut my losses before going out and buying new plugs and leads.....thoughts?

Dean Stranieri said:

Well, thank you for all your help thus far. So, got it all back together, fired it up and it's running on only 3 cylinders....grrr. the cylinder closest to the cam sprockets is not working and causing the engine to idle rough. I'm happy to dig deeper but can anyone tell me if this might have been caused by turning the crank by hand previously and bending the valve stems. I fear I may have had the cams in the incorrect position when setting the timing on the crank (cam belt obviously not attached). If this is likely to be the cause I think I'll cut my losses before going out and buying new plugs and leads.....thoughts?

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Compression test?

Alibro said:

Compression test?

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Not yet Alibro. I don't have my tester with me at the moment. So that's the first thing I should do right? What psi should I be looking for ya reckon?

Dean Stranieri said:

Not yet Alibro. I don't have my tester with me at the moment. So that's the first thing I should do right? What psi should I be looking for ya reckon?

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@Nodge68 is yer man for that sort of info

reading around the same is more important than what the figures are.
fingers crossed for them valves. I know I turned mine with them out of timing and I could hear the piston hit them, giving a sudden stop rather than gradual as each cylinder compresses fully.

So that's the petrol engine, rather than diesel? Do the easy stuff first, check the spark plug looks okay and that it is sparking. Check fuel delivery to and from the injector. If it is using separate coil packs, then you can swap them around to see if the fault moves with the pack. Same with the spark plugs, swapping them would make the fault move, if a plug was faulty.

Dean Stranieri said:

So that's the first thing I should do right?

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Yes. It you think you've bent valves, then a compression test will show it.

Dean Stranieri said:

What psi should I be looking for ya reckon?

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175 PSI + or - 10% will get you in the ballpark.
A good condition K series will normally have about 5 PSI spread across all cylinders.

Alibro said:

@Nodge68 is yer man for that sort of info

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I do have some useful information, sometimes Ali.

Thanks everyone. Sorry I have been away. I have decided to send the head off to get the valves done. Will get it back tomorrow and see how I go. Has anyone ever experienced dropped cylinder liners? Is it visually noticeable or a like a fraction of a mm?

I don't think it's unusual for the liners to be out by fractions of a mm. In the past those in the know suggested using a Payne Elastomer HG instead of a MLS but I don't know if they're still available.