Success!!! Though I had expected to have everything done in January, there was a major glitch with the availability of the shop & hoist that I was going to use. Seems the military has a new requirement to x-ray all hoist chains with welds, and our shop's chains were welded, not forged. So, the inspectors pulled all the chains to have them x-rayed and certified...except that their x-ray machine is down and won't be up until March. That sucked. Fortunately a friend of mine has an engine hoist and I was able to borrow it last weekend and swap the engine (with a new clutch install) in my back driveway. It was a real mess because the previous engine blew a headgasket, and left a big mess in the cooling system and even back into the intake. Anyway, I cleaned her up very nicely, I finished the final details Tuesday evening. ceremoniously inserted the key, and she started up on the first crank!! Had some serious tapping for the first twenty minutes, but then everything was perfect. Took her out for over an hour of driving today. I'm pleasantly surprised, it was a joy to have out on the road and it's very well suited for some of the terrible roads I have to drive on here. Now to get it seriously cleaned up and get some pics...
With regard to my experience with Freelander Specialists, I have high praise for them. Sue always answered the phone and responded to all of my emails very quickly. Even gladly assisted when I had some problems with delivery (that's another story in itself, I eventually had to pick it up at TNT's warehouse). Fortunately the rebuilt engine shipped on such a small pallet that I was able to easily fit it into the back of the Q7.
Total amount invested in the whole project, including the original purchase price of the Freelander, is only 2200/£1922/$2870. Not bad for having a fresh engine. I look at it as a project because I intended to flip it, but I'm not sure anymore, because it's perfect for our family and the terrible roads we have here, and all the driving we do (should be very economical). However, there's a beautiful gold fully-loaded 2000 Disco diesel on the base with a blown engine, and the owner doesn't appear to be willing to throw huge amounts of money into it. I don't know the details yet, only heard that they removed the heads and determined it was not repairable. Plus the rear air suspension needs some repair. Still waiting to find out more, but it could be my next project, which would require me to sell the Freelander because we're only allowed to have a maximum of three vehicles registered to our name here.
Next up - address the sagging headliner and the clicking/inoperable sunroof (down here in Naples, I might as well have a working sunroof).
