Sorry, that's not true. The very early (pre around '95) engines had wet liners sealed with O rings, but post '95 engines have 'damp liner' engines where only half of the liner is surrounded by coolant, the lower half is a hand press fit into the block. The ledge is sealed with hylomar.
Please don't pedal lies - for a start, Rover never made the A30, as the 'A' signifies Austin who manufactured the car 35 years before the K series was even designed and nearer 40 before it was launched. The K series is no more leaky than any other; the water pump is cam belt driven like many cars and is no more likely to leak.
Actually, this is rare - you'll have absolutely trashed the engine through overheating to get the lowest part of the block hot enough to soften the quench hardened aluminium. Coolant loss through a radiator failure or leaking hoses is no more a cause of failure than any other car.
No. The head softening will be the cause, the quench hardened deck surface of the head will get too hot, and the fire ring of the gasket will hammer into the surface, along with micro porosity allowing coolant in. What the K series cannot tolerate is running on a low antifreeze/anticorrosion additive concentration, suffering from rapid erosion of the block/head and other parts if run on neat water.
No they don't - there's no such thing. If the liner standproud is incorrect, it's not too difficult an operation to machine the deck surface of the block to ensure the liners stand around 4 - 10 thou proud.
There is no factory in the UK making the K series (OK, the updated version - the N series - is being made in China, but is different in a few important ways), so getting a factory remanufactured engine would be difficult. Permanent cure to gasket fail is to inspect the head carefully, do a hardness test on the surface around a number of points and bin if too soft. If the head is good, a light peening around the fire ring locations before skimming can help compress and consolidate the aluminium and help prevent future issues.
The main thing people do miss is the liner stand proud, if not even and at around 10 thou, the gasket will go and go again.
So between the two of you argueing could you tell me is this a good first car for me to get as ive seen they look good they're cheap to buy and cheap on insurance and if you dont think this is a good car could you please give me some alternatives which tick the boxes I provided please. Thank you.