Well, nothing has happened with the car, but, after receiving a specific (and AWESOME tool), I've managed to remove the cylinder head from the block, and got the 4E-FTE bottom end onto the stand. From there, all I really did was degreased and cleaned the block, ready for a lick of paint. Whilst I was there, I did the same to the sump!
When I removed the head I was slightly shocked though at the state of the gasket and pistons:
...the original plan was to just do a straight swap! Oh well, at least once everything's nice and cleaned it'll be a better running thing anyway!
Well, they're finally on, they are SSR XR-4S Longchamps in a staggered offset (+7 and +27?) and....I don't know. The garage wouldn't install the wider offset wheels at the front as it's apparently illegal to do so (ok...), i'll change that soon. I'll need to have spacers on the wheels and the arch extensions before I'm completely satisfied.
Things to note: Steering is crazy light now for some obscure reason! And ride isn't much worse despite 45 profile tyres. I'll let the tyres bed in a bit more before I conclude on their grip and behaviour.
Well, seeing as I'm kind of ickle, I generally have some issues when I find my perfect seating position...i.e. I have small arms, so, with the fixed bucket seat in place its been very hard for me to liberally twirl the wheel, especially with harnesses in situ'.
And then came this!
The steering wheel is now perfectly to hand! Finally I can easily turn the wheel with the harnesses tightened. And...well, that's it. It's just a spacer! However, a major-ish update is due tomorrow ;)
Damnit, I wanted to use the actual title of the song but seems like I already have a blog entry sharing that title. Nevermind. Anyway, finally in what seemed like a bleak period of doing not a lot, I finally got to install the TRD Front Anti-roll bar, and what was supposed to be a 5min job turned out to be quite a bit more due to several silly annoyances.
Issue 1:
See the scratches on the end of the Anti-roll bar? Those are from my Dremel after I had to chop off a nut that the previous owner had seized, and since no endlink was attached to help stop both ends from spinning, I had to chop the nut off.
Issue 2: 
Seems like the endlinks were bent/stripped from the roll-over crash the car they originated from went through, which made starting the thread nigh on impossible - on this side I had to chop off some of the thread, cut down the underside bushing, and finally got the nut on, not fun.
Issue 3:
Not really an issue, but I had to drop the exhaust, which I didn't want to do, because I'm lazy, so, that irked me.
And here it is installed:
So far I cannot conclude much from the anti-roll bar, I will update shortly after a late night drive with no traffic, but the reduction of roll is slightly perceivable at higher cornering speeds, but not as much as I expected. What this objectively means for handling is difficult to clarify as the grip levels of the car aren't exactly lacking, so, probably track testing will reveal a difference. Saying that, this bar is less than half the weight of stock! So that's a useful weight reduction!
Update: The anti-roll bar has proven to be quite noticeable now, to the point of troubling front-end grip on the Goodyear Eagle's, never an issue before! Corners much flatter, settles quicker into corners. All in all, a good modification in my eyes - I want to try it on wet roads to gauge grip transition and adjustability!
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