Freelander Head Gasket Change

I have just bought a Freelander with a blown head gasket as a project. I drove the car home but after skimming the head she refuses to start. I have been experimenting and get a good spark direct from the coil but despite a new rotor arm and cap no combination of old and new produces a good spark after the distributor.
Checking back over my work I have set the cambelt up by the book at the 90' position. The drivebelt wheels are located on the respective dowlsfor the inlet and exhuast but they do not sit at the described 4 and 8oclock position when all the timing marks are aligned.
At TDC the rotor arm sits at No2 Cyl in the distributor cap and checking the cam lobes they are clear of the valves but I am not convinced that they are in the right position. 360' later and I am stil not convinced. My compression is low but equal across all cylinders and the fluids are all staying in the right place.
Any Ideas on what I am missing?

a defender.

if the timing is 180 degrees out it will not fire
nor damage valves check this out as the pulleys have inlet and exhaust written on each of them

note the pistons all sit half way down the bore when at tdc check this by putting a long screwdriver down the plug holes the pistons should all be level .

that dont ring true.

shirley TDC is TOP - ie piston 1 is at the TOP of its compression stroke?

The Mad Hat Man said:

that dont ring true.

shirley TDC is TOP - ie piston 1 is at the TOP of its compression stroke?

Click to expand...

TDC is, but TDC check is 90 deg before TDC ...

try it out i thought that the first time i did my dads an was shown by a mate that all the pistons are half way down the bores when timing is set

Sorry, not TDC check ..... it's timing check at 90 degrees before TDC ..

k341sjr said:

note the pistons all sit half way down the bore when at tdc check this by putting a long screwdriver down the plug holes the pistons should all be level .

Click to expand...

Wot? Half way down the bores - now ur havin a larf entcha?

I have checked valve timing against pison position and all lines up BUT the pully wheel mark is 180 degrees out from the tdc mark on the belt cover. I am trying to get mt head around the idea that this would effect the crank ingition sensor.

K-series TDC mark puts all pistons half way up cylinders.

The K series has to be stripped and rebuilt 90 degrees BTDC to prevent the valves hitting pistons. you cannot rotate the engine with the head off as the liners will move.
Thats why I am struggling to prove the timing. I was hoping to have found somthing I might have missed as a common problem.
From all the discussion from this thread and another I have started I have a pressure test and ingition test to carry out.
I have been outside for a week on this, snow and ice wont stop me but my daughters birthday tomorrow will so I will be back out on thursday and will report on progress.
thanks for all the feedback
RC

Thanks to all with the tips and the comments,

'My Freelander lives'.

In the end I went back to my basic engineering training and proved the valve timing against the actual piston position and proved everything was spot on.
I striped down my compression tester and proved that it was reading low so kicked it in the bin.
I then gave it a go with easy start which will usually at least burn your eyebrows off but not even a pop or a fart.
Despite having a week spark I tested the coil which gave me 1.2 ohms resistance on the primary winding the book says 0.7 so I persuaded my local auto factor to let me do the same test on a new one and actually got 0.7.
I fitted this and a new set of leads and minutes later she was purring like a pussy cat.
A month ago I drove the car to my house with an overheating problem it started easily so the coil should have been fine. With my new head gasket set I have changed the following:
· Water Pump
· Thermostat
· Cam belt
· All filters and fluids
· Coil
· Distributor, Rotor arm and leads
· Pork Chop on the rear diff
· Stripped the sump out
I gave all parts a massive clean including lapping in the valves checking the spring fee lengths.

This afternoon I gave her a work out on Dartmoor in the snow and proved all the electric traction gadgets do work. And yes I had a lot of fun.

I am definitely hooked
RC

errrr...............