Thanks for all the encouragement. I think I've finally found the right mix of spare time, spare coin and motivation, but hearing it can only help.
Answering q's:
Engine is in the process of being rebuilt now. The bare block is on an engine stand in my garage, waiting for cleanup. Head, cam towers and all top end is with my mechanic buddy Rick or at the machine shop. Flywheel is already back, as is a tanked and graphited crank. I've ordered the rebuild kit and have conversed with the guy on the other end. He was pretty thorough and was really concerned about the pistons. He told me he was going get Silvolite's
https://uempistons.com/i-20879-silvolite-piston-2759cc-toyota-l6-1982-90.html and wanted me to confirm the match. Then after last weekend, I called him back with that confirmation and he said upon checking, he still had a set of new old stock Toyota pistons that he was putting into the kit. At least I understood him that it was Toyota, but definitely new old stock. He said he was likely to ship Wednesday, but I've not yet seen a tracking number.
Interesting side question. The machinist tells my mechanic that he almost never sees a Toyota engine that needs to be bored due to wear and has wondered what kind of hard metal they use for their blocks. Is this a common experience? My engine has around 220K on it. The rings were shot, but the mechanic is pretty impressed by how little wear he's seeing otherwise.
I wasn't concerned about emissions any longer. I've moved to an area of the state that doesn't require. I'm also glad to hear that they're ending the program. Not that I don't think that keeping emissions low isn't a good thing. I just think the way the whole game was set up is/was ridiculous. The mix of state regs being administrated by a private firm just didn't work well in my opinion. The goal is to bring this back to spec, so it would be interesting to see a fresh test once it's rolling again, but I can't see that happening until 2020.
Yes, my expectation is that the engine will no longer perform as an oil sieve. The rebuild kit is supposed to include the full gasket set. I'm reserving judgement until mechanic Rick looks at it upon arrival and tells me that I don't have to order any missing pieces. Tear down showed me one place where I'm sure that I was leaking was the oil pan itself. It was only silicon and not a real gasket at all. Not sure where that entered the picture. Every mechanic that saw it ventured a guess, but I never had the pan pulled until now.
I'll also paint and powder coat as we go along. Just because it's only going back to spec and isn't intended for show, doesn't mean it can't be pretty though. This will all be covered in later posts as things progress.
This weekend while we wait for the rebuild kit, my task is to start putting the brake system back together so we can roll and stop when needed. Rolling it out of the garage so the engine bay can be pressure washed is a necessity. There's a lot of grime removal and corrosion abatement to be done and for the area under the battery unfortunately some rust removal and fabrication to repair the inside of the fender. I plan to do the reinstall of the brake booster today. As I clean those things up, I'm working on technique to deal with the corrosion on non-painted metal parts and am trying out some different paint colors. Might look a little crazy in the end, but at least treated and hopefully sealed from new problems. Mostly not quite so ugly. We're just starting with the booster and master cylinder. The wheel ends of the system will definitely need to come in later adventures. Just aiming to keep it from rolling when I step on the brakes during further repairs, not stop the car at speed.
I've also got another active post. I'm looking for a replacement crankshaft timing pulley.
https://www.celicasupra.com/forums/showthread.php?121099-13521-43020-Crankshaft-timing-pulley&p=1316987#post1316987. Someone there referred me to another post about machining a 7MGE pulley for the purpose, but I think that the reference he made is reverse of what I need. I'll get a pic today of the pulley when I make it out to the garage and post it later.
Colors
Even though the exterior is way down the road. I've still been thinking of a color. While searching Ebay, I saw a color that interests me, but I don't know if it is a Toyota color or a re-shoot. Does someone know of a catalog of authentic colors from the MKII's production runs? For some reason I've got this sick desire to start agonizing over that detail.