Have I made a costly mistake?

It's no big deal, you slipped a couple of teeth on the cam belt. Get a new belt and fit it. You might want to get a rattle gun to get the crank bolt out though. I have a Clarke 240V one cost £65 and worked fine on the two I did.

Just so I'm getting this correct. If I get the crank pulley bolt out and then remove the cam belt as usual, can I adjust the sprocket position by turning them individually with out the belt, and then refit?

Yip. Probably as soon as you remove the belt the cam pulleys will spring around a bit and you will have to force them back to the correct position. I wouldn't reuse the belt tho as it may have been damaged.
Use clothes pegs to hold the belt around the bottom pulley when refitting.

I have new belt to fit as I wanted to do the water pump. Less stressed now.

Had all the same fears myself first time I did it. Just make sure you have a tool to hold the pulleys and you'll be fine. Will probably take a few attempts to get it right though. Very easy to be one tooth out so the pulleys almost line up but not quite. Use a mirror to check.

I have an official rover k series cam key so I'm all good

Adam Gorsuch said:

I have an official rover k series cam key so I'm all good

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Is that the key you stick in between the cams or the tool you use to pull them into position. They spring back with quite a bit of force so you need something to pull them back into position.
Something like this
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Universal...olding-Tool-/262062616588?hash=item3d0426300c

It's the key you push between the teeth to stop them moving. Why would the spring outwards?

Adam Gorsuch said:

It's the key you push between the teeth to stop them moving. Why would the spring outwards?

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Those valve springs exert quite a force so when the belt is removed the cams often move a bit. The cam locking 'tool' will prevent this. A cam turning tool can easily be made like this:

Thanks, looks easy enough to knock out.

I don't normally bother myself, I just turn the cams with a big spanner on the bolt holding the sprocket on.

Unless the engine is knackered, the torque required to turn the cam is way less than the torque that the bolt is done up to so you can just keep turning it clockwise till you get to the right location.

Can't remember why I didn't use my locking tool but I think it was too long to fit and I didn't want to cut it in half, hence I needed the turning tool, I made one similar to the one above.
Also I had removed the head and taking the pulleys off is part of the process, as it is a K series you'll probably be doing that sometime too .
You also need something to hold the pulley as you tighten the bolt.

Well after many cut knuckles and plenty of swearing it's on and sorted. Why land rover decided to make the water pump such a pig to get off I'll never know. Bloody socket was too short without an extender but the extender I had was too long. I ended up just turning the cam pulley like the above post says to do and got them aligned and then locked them with the key.
Tried to fit the belt as per Haynes! Never again. Thank god for YouTube. Else I would still be there swearing

Well done, if it's any consolation it's easier the second time. I did the same as you and replaced water pump, tensioner and belts when I bought mine and had a similar nightmare. Had to do it all again a few months later when mayo appeared on the dipstick.

Fingers crossed I get at least twelve months out of her first

Have you done the PRT thermostat mod, oil rail and dowels?

Dowels???? Please explain he ain't had the head off yet.
That's next week's job.

Not yet, one step at a time, I've hardly had a chance to drive it since I've got it. Next month will be the time for upgrades

Alibro said:

Dowels???? Please explain.

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Dowels to located the head correctly on the block. On the earlier motors these were nylon? apparently. With the introduction of the MLS the introduced steel ones.

Stupid phone posted before I was finished.