I think most of the members here have been in your shoes. As time goes on, you will get seasoned, and helping the newbies out there.
If you don't believe me, look at my join date, 1 year before you and my first Land Rover. 900+ posts and 120+ thanks to boot.

 

jump aboard we will teach

 

Don't worry Captain, you go take a nap. There isn't an iceberg within a hundred miles of us

 

If it's not your daily driver, just jump in and get to work. You'll make a ton of mistakes, you'll sweat, but you'll learn. Hopefully you have enough money to pay for the mistakes. Learn how to use the RAVE.

Wires aren't too hard, by the way. You can do them without removing the upper air intake. It's a pain, but there's nothing intellectually or engineering-ly (?) challenging about it. There's a good guide out there that shows you how to make a bent screwdriver, which helps. If you have a pair of pliers that are bent at the tip and have rounded edges (e.g. circlip pliers) they will also come in handy taking off the wires from the coils.

 

That's awesome! I love my Rover! My dtrs father purchased one 2 1/2 yrs ago, and it impressed me when it was only one of a handful of vehicles trooping through 2+ feet of snow! Of course, I've also learned from his mistakes (I.e. no tune up to this day, infrequent oil changes).... He did however, have to have his crank sensor, water pump, drive belt and radiator replaced this past summer... But I intend on taking very good care of mine, as I have always heard they are 'tough as nails' and will 'never leave you stranded'....the latter proved true as we were on the interstate when the crank sensor showed us it needed replacing (took us 2hrs to make a 25 minute drive bcus it kept cutting off and wouldn't restart until it sat a minute/cooled off. His is a 2000, mine an 02, and I just purchased mine a month ago for 3000 at 188,000 and it purrs like a kitten, no visible (on the ground) oil leaks, and I'll be replacing my expansion tank this evening as it has a hairline crack in it that I patched last night with plastic epoxy...BTW, how would I know if my head is cracked or blown? It ran into the red and temp light came on once. Of course I immediately shut her down and didn't drive her til I was able to fix the coolant leak a week ago. That time I used quick steel epoxy (he did it and only sanded tank with a steel wool pad and applied the putty only for me to find out after it attempted to run hot, well gauge started to rise that the putty was the wrong kind). So I used a rough sandpaper after cleaning it with acetone, applied the epoxy for plastic, put a gauze pads in place and reapplied the epoxy and let her sit over nite. I'm not seeing the classic symptoms such as the white smoke, stalling....just wondering if there are other signs

 

BTW, I'm due an oil change but local garages won't or can't do it because bolt is stuck and they can't get in to change it

 

Oh and upon sealing tank, noticed coolant had been seeping from around the larger hose at point it connects to the tank so I loosened clamp, moved it up a smidgen and reclamped it...thinking, hoping this was a port where air was seeping in and causing pressure build up that blew the quiksteel 'patch' off...

 

Red usually means problems... For me anyway. If you start loosing coolant and/or getting misfires, if you get odd pressure in the expansion tank (bubbling after you are sure all of the air is out) or if you see a frothy milkshake on the dipstick, then you probably have a head gasket issue. If not, be blissfully happy that you dodged a bullet.

 

Harbor freight has a socket set for pulling rounded bolts. It works on anything. I bet that oil change place rounded the bolt a bit. Tell them Charlie V said they need to grow a pair.

 

Misfires? Explain.... I'm a novice...