It's been far, far too long, but finally I have started piecing the ST205 engine back together!
First, two things I noticed when pulling the head: CRAP TONS of sludge on the pistons. No idea what was going on there. And, also, the original honing is still very, very intact. It's like this engine was transported through time from 1998 and suddenly manifested in 2010:
Teehee, block serial number:
Anyway. Parts that came in over the last monthish: ARP studs, a 3G 3S-GTE gasket kit, and Engle valve springs:
I also picked up a Toyotool. I have to say I was pretty skeptical of it at first...I don't exactly have upper body strength. And the instructions for it are painfully uninformative. Regardless. Got the head setup with a chopped tennis ball holding the valves up and layed out the new stem seals:
On the left, stock ST205 valve spring. Engle valve spring to the right:
Tall freaking springs. It's like they're crawling their way out of the head!
And with a little futzing around I get my first spring reinstalled!
Half an hour later or so, all 16 springs, stem seals, retainers, shims, buckets and 32 tiny little keepers are back into place at last:
In retrospect, I LOVE that valve tool! It's magnetized so you won't lose the keepers during disassembly, plus it works for installing the stem seals themselves. I'd recommend this to anyone over using the C-clamp style spring compressors.
Now that that's out of the way I can work on this more than I have been. Hoping to get her ready for winter.