So it seems things want to go wrong in little groups with this car, as not long after my last update i had my timing belt tensioner/idler fail, letting the exhaust cam swing, and clipping exhaust valves on the pitons.
 
Now i say clipped, as it was hard enough to leave witness marks on the valves and the pistons, but if you were too look, you wouldn't know if any of the valves bent. One thing that people often don't consider witht hings like this is that if the valve  did bend, even the tiniest bit, the valve seat and the valve spring will straighten a slight bend out quite quickly, especially if there was enough heat present at the time.
 
This process is known as elastic deformation. Now as it get straightened again, the stem of the valve has been weakened. Add in the fact of running undercut valves, and you have a recipe for dropping the head off a valve.
 
Now, i didn't want to chance that, as i can afford to change the valves, and get a new headgasket and associated parts, but i'm not up for a full engine build, as when that time comes, i want to make the engine bulletproof. So....
 

Off with the head. Now, when you do something like this, i strongly recommend you get a texta, a roll of masking tape, and a packet of sandwich bags to label everything, this way life is a lot easier when you get to putting it back together. Like this:
 

 
Once the head was off, it was time to strip the valvetrain out of the head. I have the luxury of owning a lot to cylinder head service tools, and with my head having double valve springs, hammer based collet removal tools dont really work, and are a touch dangerous, so i used an on car tool, with the head bolted to the bench, with a sheet of wood between the two to prevent scratching the head.
 

 

The double valve spring and titainium retainer in all its glory.
 

Now i forgot to take a photo before i started, but as my head was unbelievably gummed up from leaking valve stem seals, reasonably large overlap and a few other things it was in need of a clean. Don't use anything too aggressive. I went and bought a 5 pack of cheap hard toothbrushes from the supermarket for a few dollars, and carefully softened up the crud with acetone and degreaser.
 

Then i sprayed it with undiluted degreaser, allowing it to sit for a bit before filling this tub with hot water. After it sat there for a bit longer, i went at everything with a toothbrush again, before rinsing the head off with a high pressure hose.
 

Hey presto, not spotless - but more than good enough. To give you an idea of how much this head has been messed with, note how material has been removed from the combustion chamber between the intake and exhaust ports. This was done following the guidelines of the TRD bible, and the "joggles" as they are referred to are removed for high rpm benefits.
 

The intake ports are opened up quite a lot, particularily in a bowl, they are the size of the gasket and don't taper down.
 

Anyone who has looked in the intake side of a stock bigport head can appreciate how much material has been removed. To be honest probably a bit too much.
 

Sorry about the horrible shot, but you get an idea of the exhaust side as well.
 

Next up was the removal of the valve stem seals. I cannot recommend enough how much you should buy a set of valve stem seal pliers for doing these heads, as if you try with normal pliers etc, you risk scoring where the bucket sits, which is not good.
 

Thanks for the effort in the write up, always enjoyable reading through them, even though its painful for you to have to go through repairs for something like a tensioner failure.

No worries Brendan, pleasure to meet you and to see how far the car has come since I saw it last at fabs.
Glad I could put you in contact with someone to help out with your motec setup, and if there is anything I help you with, or put you in contact with to help, just shoot me a pm.

Yeah should be ok, realy nice sensor, contactless and as said can be customized for the measuring angle and each of the 2 output direction. 
Some of the V8SC's run them (a different model and single output, but same contactless) and tonne of other racecars.
I was happy that tilton do a easy simple bolt on designed for a good sensor.

Don't have much time at the moment, spent another 18 hours on the car since my last update, and finally have the car running. I will post an update soon when i have a chance to, but for now i thought id post a quick video of the car up and running, seeing as i think kameleon is the only person that has seen the car running in the last few years.
 

 
It's a video, click on the picture to get to the video.

MCT_MR2
 
 i have started to lose respect for it,  I need it to have a bit more trouble with traction to make me respect it a bit more.

 
I love this justification, I think I need more respect for mine now I come to think of it!

I know what you mean, and think most 'modders' would have the same thought.