Hi folks, I finally cured an annoying problem where my L series diesel freelander needed lots of cranking whatever the weather before she would start. Normally she starts instantly. This reluctance to start is symptomatic of an air leak somewhere allowing fuel to drain away from the injectors. I decided to renew the leak off pipes as being a probable cause. Easy job to do and they needed doing but no improvement on starting. After a while I remembered that I had changed the fuel filter and starting was OK prior to that. Fuel filter showed no sign of leakage until I used the priming bulb and was able to force some fuel from the bleed valve on top by using hard pressure on the bulb.

The moral of this story is make sure you tighten bleed valve and drain cock fully when fitting a new fuel filter! Engine fires up instantly again.
Hope this thread helps somebody with a similar problem.