Tony's 5M-GTE build (lots of pics)

[stealth_5mge]

Hey CS.com
I guess this build thread should have been started a long time ago, but I got so caught up in the madness. Anyway here's a semi-comprehennsive account of my descent into madness... I mean my 5m-GTE build. I wish i would have taken more pictures, and less of them with an ipodphone so excuse the crap quality of some of the pics. this forum has been a great source of both reference material and inspiration to me. There are some really innovative, intelligent, and passionate members on this forum and i think thats what makes CS.com one of the best if not THE best online car community. I hope this thread helps someone out, and if anybody has any questions, comments, concerns, criticisms or beer feel free to hit me up.

First thing off was the hood, under which was a clean, relatively stock (exception for the chimpy pipe) example of a 370,000 km (230,000 miles?) 5m-GE
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Engine bays are a lot like life... you've gotta jump right in!
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the night we pulled the 5m, BTW i used to run that badass engine hoist but I'm at a different company now.
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stripped it all down, mic'ed the journals, cylinder bores, and pistons, everything was in beautiful shape.
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removed the pistons, stripped them down...
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cleaned them up all purrrrdy like
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even though my connecting rod bushings were in good shape and clearance was within spec, I decided to replace them anyway. So I spun up a bushing removal tool on the lathe, and threaded a length of 3/8" 16unc threaded rod into it
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used in conjunction with a 1 1/8" socket, the bushings came right out
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I also added some ARP connecting rod bolts to prevent high load stretch and the dreaded but oh so common M-series spun rod bearing.
After I got the block back from the machine shop ( 0.019" shaved from the deck) I gave the cylinder bores a quick hone to freshen them up and gave it a very thorough blasting with the varsol gun and dropped the new main bearings in.
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for assembly lube i use permatex ultra slick, I love this stuff! it is viscous enough with a great film-strength that it will adhere to surfaces without wiping off on startup, but it will blend in with both conventional and synthetic oils, unlike lubriplate which leaves blobs that wont pass through your oil filter. The only assembly lube that I have found to be as good or better is max-TUFF by royal purple, but as you can imagine the permatex lube is about one third the price and more readily available.
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I then dropped the crank in with plastigauge on the journals and torqued all the main caps down to spec. Great news! all of my bearing clearances were 0.001" to 0.0015" and this is on a crank that has seen 370,000kms with std. size journals. This crank has really stood the test of time, in contrast to the crank from my spare block that came out in two peices with a a harmonic stress fracture right across the #2 main journal.
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after cleaning off the plastigauge and retorquing the mains, I measured the ring endgap and the plastigauge process was repeated with the rod bearings. I then used a dial indicator to bring the #1 cylinder to top dead center (TDC) and installed the ARP head studs (backed out about 1/4" to ensure full thread engagement with the nut. In this pic you can see the fresh machine finish of the deck. It is absolutely imperitive that the deck and head have ZERO warpage when using a multilayer steel head gasket, as they are not as forgiving to surface imperfections as composite (OEM) HG's. some people will tell you that in addition to zero warpage on the head and block mating surfaces you also need a surface finish of 20 roughness average (RA) or better for a proper MHG seal but I coated mine with a thin film of loctite-30535 aerosol sealant on both sides and many newer metal head gaskets come with a very thin coating of flouroelastomer, usually Viton, Buna or Nitrile, which flows into the asperities (imperfections in the surface finish). anyway, I've seen no leakage with my setup.
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I never took the head to the machine shop because I verified less than 0.001" warpage with a feeler gauge and a 24" straightedge accurate to 0.0005". After a quick smoothing of the exhaust ports (just enough to remove any casting ridges and humps) and a cleaning and lapping of the old valves, all of which were in great shape. I verified 360 contact on the valve seats with some prussian blue. This was a time consuming process but totally worth it knowing that my valvetrain is in great shape. and the smoothing of the exhaust ports will get those gasses into the turbine housing faster! I then installed and torqued the head blowing the guts out of my snap-on TQ wrench in the process, good thing I have a spare! anybody who has worked with a 5m knows that the cam housings leak like a sonofabitch, so I coated mine with loctite high temp aerosol sealant, the same I used on the HG. When installing the cam housings its important to tighten the bolts in sequence just a little at a time as the tension from the valve springs can exert uneven loads on the housing leading to warpage.
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After installing the oil pan (modified to accept a -10 JIC fitting for my turbo oil return line) and masking some stuff off it was time for a new paintjob. I went with a coat of gray high temp primer followed by 3 coats of duplicolour aluminum engine enamel followed by 2 light coats of engine enamel clearcoat to seal it all. I dont think this pain will bee peeling any time soon. wrinkle black with shaved aluminum lettering on the valve covers to top it all off
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well thats most of the engine build. I have some very detailed pics for the timing belt install including a solution to the killer dowel pin that ****ed my old timing belt and chipped my old oil pump drive gear. but Im tired of typing. Next post will be turbo and induction stuff, maybe some of my fuel system swag.
if anybody reading this post has never done an engine build of their own, all I can say is that its a tedious and delicate process, but its relatively fun and rewarding to know that every part inside your engine is within spec and toleranced in some cases as close as 0.0002 (no I didnt add an extra zero). I hope you guys like my build thread, I try to include as much technical info as possible without being too boring. Let me know what you think.

[84ptype]

Very nice...keep it up.

[bluegoose]

I'm digging the thread so far, man. It's pretty obvious your attention to detail, and for a restoration that's always a good thing (one detail I noticed is the red on the factory stamp on the block). I can't wait to see more!

[FPZero]

Excellent build. Love seeing dedication like that, best way to get things done to your liking. Subscribing for the rest of the update.

[1982 Dragon]

Nice job man, good to see another 5mgte
Total inspiration.

[stealth_5mge]

The story of the killer dowel pin.... well I guess i should stop calling it a killer because it was really more of an attempted murder.
Last winter when I began my teardown I removed the #3 timing cover to find this abortion of fibreglass and rubber. This pic doesnt really do it justice but the timing case was FULL of shredded timing belt carnage. Both cam seals were leaking and the belt was all soft and punky so i thought maybe it was just dissentigrating from a combination of petroleum contamination and the centrifugal forces generated at around 6500 rpm. Unlikely, but I think I was just trying to convince myself of this scenario, knowing subconsciously that it was a mechanical failure.
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Well, after I pulled the engine and gor the crank pulley and #1 timing cover removed, I carefully cleaned out and saved all the oily timing belt cake batter that filled the timing case. Once the mess was all out i started sifting through it and came across a small, barely recognizeable dowel pin that resembled a victim from one of the SAW movies. The purpose of this dowel is to act as a fulcrum point for the timing belt tensioner. I will admit that I was relieved to find out that the dowel was the culprit, pretty minor when you consider what could have come loose in the timing case. well after i douched out the remaining mess in the timing case, I discovered that the dowel must have made a detour to the oil pump drive gear on its way to the bottom of the case because most of the teeth were mangled, luckily I had a spare 84 timing set. I have a complete 83 engine as well but the 82-83 5m's have square teeth on the cam gears oil pump gear and crank gear, whereas 84-88 have round teeth for smoother operation and better wear characteristics. I dont have a picture of the thundered dowel but in this pic you can see how it acts as an axis about which the tensioner rotates for the purpose of setting up your belt tension.
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When I drove a new pin out of a spare case I measured both the pin and the pin bore to find that it is held in place with an interference fit of 0.001" which is great, but what were dealing with here is 2 dissimilar metals, a steel pin in an aluminum bore. These 2 different metals have different coefficients of thermal expansion, meaning that the aluminum will expand at a greater rate than the steel pin, causing that nice tight interference to become a size-for-size fit or possibly a clearance fit at higher temps. and 5m-GE's run hot! my solution to this was to add some loctite-640 high strength, high temp. sleeve retaining compound (green stuff) to the new pin. This stuff works great, I have used it many times for mechanical seal wear sleeves in centifugal pumps and on undersized shafts to retain ball bearings where the previous bearing seized and spun on the shaft -Normally I would replace the shaft but some customers are cheap. When using any kind of threadlocker or anaerobic retaining compound be sure to clean both products down to the bare metal, these products are meant to adhere to METAL and they will not cure fully when exposed to oil or grease. I go as far as to use loctite-7649 which is an activator that speeds curing time and promotes better adhesion, but I'm anal like that. at the very least make sure you get it clean, but that goes for anything mechanical in my opinion.
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Before removing the pin from the other case, I Measured the pin standoff (how far it stuck out from the case) and made sure to drive it in that much, 7mm IIRC.
#note: I warmed up the pin bore with a heat gun so that the interference fit wouldnt wipe off the retaining compound as i drove it in
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Well, thats the case of the (sort of) killer dowel pin and my solution to prevent it from happening again. I told my buddy about this and he has a 24valve Cummins, apparently they have a similar problem, except that they are gear timed and the dowel is a lot bigger, add to that it is an interference engine leads to catastrophic failure. 1 in 20 chance of it happening or so ive heard. Food for thought if youre ever building a Cummins.
Until next time, Cheers!

[1982 Dragon]

Just realized your pics were from 2007?
Best of luck.

[stealth_5mge]

Haha the pics are not from 2007, they're from August 2012. I'm just too lazy to change the date on the camera

[TransAmBandit]

Need moar update.

[stealth_5mge]

Hey CS.com
Sorry for the lack of updates. Fall and winter have been really busy for me, with the holiday season, a new job, and trying to further my education in between, the supra hasn't been given all the attention it deserves. However, the new job has injected some much needed capital into the supra program. This christmas I went all out, spoiling my family with an overzealous amount of gifts, the supra recieved the same treatment. Some parts have arrived, others are still on a boat/plane/truck or sitting forgotten in a warehouse somewhere. So (pending parts) stay tuned for some major updates! These updates will be reliability-centric, focusing more on easing serviceability and insuring component longevity rather than sheer power.

Late nights in the near future!