Did the 1.8 Petrol Freelander ever get rid of HG problems?

[SeeFive]

Hi folks

Any LR technicians out there? The wife fancies a Freelander - God knows why as she avoids even slightly muddy puddles let alone the off road. Anyway, I am not a fan of diesel clatter, so was thinking of the 1.8 petrol. However, looking at the internet, it seems that these engines are plagued with expensive head gasket failures due to a design fault.

The question is, did LR ever get around to fixing this - and how good is the fix? Most of the HG issues I can see on the web are on fairly old models. I am looking at buying a 55+ reg car, not the absolutely latest shape (I don't think they do a petrol in the all new Freebie 2). If it was my daily driver, I wouldn't care as I am a habitual guage watcher, but she tends to just drive.... looking in shop windows, so with a HG failure, she won't notice till it stops in an expensive cloud of steamy smoke ouside Marks & Sparks.

Thanks in advance....

[GreenLandy]

IIRC the K series as a whole suffered with head Gasket problems. This was overcome by replacing the plastic head dowels with metal ones. I'm not sure if LR took up on this though.
:awaitssomeonewithbetterknowledgetoturnup:

[BLUETHUNDER]

Get a TD4,a much,much better engine.And BMW refinement.

[gwood]

they have modified the head gaskets they are now a composite gasket with an extra metal shim to go on top. i think it should solve the problem.

[SeeFive]

Thanks for the replies folks. I'd like to think that the new style gaskets, steel locator pins instead of plastic ones and reroute of the thermostat plus a different "slow release" therm fixes the problem cos despite the refinement of a BMW engine, I just cannot stand that clatter from a diseasel. I just do not know how much of this mixed bag of remedy LR have implemented. Perhaps an additional oil cooler is the way to go after I buy it or stump up the extra 10 grand for a new one.

The worry with going petrol K series is that my wife is about as mechanically minded as my dog, and pays as much attention to the guages as my cat, so she just would not see the problem coming. The consequence of not seeing it with that block is pretty worrying.

Perhaps I had better have a listen to a Diseasel... oh dear... yes, I have said it. Actually, there is quite a nice one advertised on here... and the Audis at LeMans were reasonable sounding. Can you squeeze one of them engines in a Freebie????

[alextgreen]

IIRC, there are now 7 variants of the Freelander head gasket.

The latest variant (fitted with revised oil rail and remote thermostat) so far has zero reported failures at our dealership