Have I made a costly mistake?

I did check but I must not of checked hard enough. Any put the old one back one after a good clean and as in the Haynes book of lies checked its flat. It's seems so. Triple checked.
Got a Payen bw750 gasket with the blue beading. As suggested. Fitted the head and plumbed it in. Had a minor fart and forgot to attached the bottom hose with the clip and had to fight with it for about 15 mins got coolant in my mouth and face. Not impressed as it was also getting dark. Anyway, been and checked and it hasn't dropped in level so that's a good sign. Haven't starts it yet as I haven't had a chance to fit the cam belt. So first thing tomorrow before work I'll be out there rain or shine. Wish me luck this works. I'll be gutted if it doesn't

Good luck mate.

All done. SO far so good, touch of steam from the exhaust to start with but I think that will be because of the amout of coolant from the previous disaster in the system. It's not leaking externally this time so that's a start. I haven't taken it for a run yet as I'm knackered now and have work this evening. Gonna run it to the shops in a hour and see. Have a new issue now though. When I turned it on the traction control light didn't turn off. Is there anyway I could of knocked something or forgotten to plug something in. I changed the drop links be cause they were screwed, I did loosen one whilst the engine was running and I think this may be the cause as the hill decent Amber light came on too. Although this went off when I finished fitting them both. The track rod ends do need doing as well. Is it a matter of getting the warning lights reset at a garage?

Lights are gone, just needed a run. Took for a few miles, got to running temp nicly, no loss of coolant as far as I can tell, not steam from exhaust. Tiny smear of Mayo under the filler but then when I took the head off the cylinders had coolant in. So I'm assuming it's just clearing that bit up. If it doesn't then I'm gonna park it in s rough estate with the windows open.

Done 400 miles, terrible on fuel compared to my Alfa Romeo. Seemed to be losing about 5mm of coolant every 200miles then noticed that the bottom of the inlet manifold was wet. May explain both the poor fuel consumption and the coolant loss. Anyway when I stripped the engine first time it was just the rubber seal. In my kit it came with the rubber seal and a number of paper gaskets to match the intake. I only used the rubber seal and that could be why. I've taken it off again and put both the card gasket and the rubber seal. Is that right?

No, paper gasket is for the alloy intake manifold on VVC engines.Those the 'traditional' flat metal to flat metal type join, hence the 'traditional' paper gasket. You gasket set will have come with the bits to do different versions of the K-Series in one packet.
A wee bit of Blue Hylomar or similar around the rubber gasket to make sure it stays in place when you re-attach the manifold? Otherwise check the plastic manifold hasn't distorted where it meets the head.

I did the reduction unit oil change yesterday, smelled so bad, my neighbour came out thinking she had a gas leak. The car didn't know what was going in after its first drive.

After my new found mechanical skills I helped my cousin with his td4 freelancer today. He's a bumptious and took his car to halfords to have his power steering fluid topped up. The staff member poured half a bottle into the coolant. Que a fluid similar to angel delight.

Adam Gorsuch said:

After my new found mechanical skills I helped my cousin with his td4 freelancer today. He's a bumptious and took his car to halfords to have his power steering fluid topped up. The staff member poured half a bottle into the coolant. Que a fluid similar to angel delight.

Click to expand...

....you gotta be kidding.

Oh no, not kidding! it was disgusting. It was a think orange mouse, greasy and reminded me of the pink slime from ghostbusters. He's a bit of a no hoper when it comes to cars. He also doesn't learn as he took it to the same halfords only weeks before an got them to fit wipers, they fitted the wrong lengths and it failed its MOT.
I my took 5 flushes to clear it.

Never heard of putting power steering fluid in your coolant, does it make it run cooler?

It makes it more powerful

Done about 1000 miles since the rebuild, seems to be ok.
I have got an oil leak. Can't seem to work out where from though. I thought it was the cam seals but I've change them and it's not made a difference.
It could be the cam ladder which is a bit of an annoyance as it means I have to pull it all off again to re seal it.
Originally I used a loctite anaerobic sealant but when I romoved the top it was rock hard and had filled all the oil grooves, took ages to get off. My local garage told me to use hymlar blue. Could this be the problem?
Also finding that if I turn the wheel full lock for a slow part it makes a noise and the vehicle near enough stops. This is same in reverse. Almost as if the brakes are on or the bearings are tight. Any ideas?

Putting your steering wheel to full lock will put pressure on your drive belt that runs the power steering pump, if engine revs are low then the vehicle could stall.

Is the oil coming from the belts end of the engine?

If so it may not be oil, mine was doing this for ages, couldn't catch the bastard in the act until I realised it was water running down the block and picking crap up as it went! Might be a water leak...

Cam ladder is a common cause of oil leak. Plus have you checked the cam seals both ends. I replaced mine and managed to cock one up resulting in a bigger leak than before. luckily I had spares. BTW some are sided and some are not so watch out for that.

I replaced the seals all round and it seems to be worse. So it may be. The ones with the kit were generic so I replaced them with the sides ones. The oil looks to be leaking on both sides and the tide lines are higher than the block and look to be coming from the cam ladder. I think my best bet is to take it off an redo seal it. Ordered the rover stuff this time.

Just thought I'd let all who gave support and advice. So far so good. Still going strong. Just working through the tick list of niggles. Like the clock pixels etc. MOT next month so that will most likly dash my dreams. Today was the rear diff mounts change. What horror. Didn't help that it poured down half way through.

Glad to hear you stuck with it, I found your thread when I was researching buying a freelander

Which I did, then I changed the HG......

Help required. Please! Drove the freelander on Thursday and all was well. Today won't start at all.
Symptoms include just turning over and over.
Some of this may be my fault as I knew I had a oil leak from the cam ladder and have done nothing to fix it.
Last week when it was very cold the cars fuel gauge stuck on full. Dunno why. I thought it was something to do with me disconnecting something when I was sorting the wiring for the tv's. Next day it was fine. Not driven it all weekend, woke today and it won't spark up.
Took out spark plugs and found 1 and four covered in oil. This is due to the oil leak I believe as the Pistons look dry.
Cleaned out the distributer head and found it a bit oily but then again I knew I had a leak.
The spark is poor, I let does spark but it's a weak yellow. Could this be because of the battery dying from constantly turning over.
How do I check the fuel pump? Is there a fuel filter? i am going to have to tackle the oil issue first but want to know the cause of the not starting suddenly first.