Project Leia - ST165

Starting this thread to keep track of things to do, things I wanna do and things I shouldn't do (or learned NOT to do). Mainly though - it'll be a sanity rambling thread for myself to refer back to often and frequently.

Who's Leia you ask? Leia's a rescue, adopted from a fellow AT.NET/CTECH guy going on 6 years ago. She's been camping out in my garage for a while until I had the funds/time to rebuild.
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With the K5 Blazer wrapping up finally, budget has opened for Leia to begin. Few years back I scored a good deal on a ST246 motor from a local importer I've used in the past. I was holding out for a ST215 but those flew off the shelves as soon as they landed. I knocked him down to the same price for the ST246 as the ST215 with a little deeper discount for cracked timing cover and no transponder keys.

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Powerplant is now sitting on the stand and teardown has begun. Will be ordering a Gen4/5 rebuild kit for it to replace various pumps, tensioners, belts, yadda yadda yadda. I won't tear the head off this time, I feel that just cost me more time, effort & money to no added benefit from last time.

First up -- sending these off to Wiregap

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Second up...getting the damn cat off so I can throw the shiny downpipe on.

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Shouldn't be. I hot-linked from my Google Photos account like I do across other forums.

Just fixed it up in a different manner, hopefully that's better?
 
Work has been keeping me locked up tight - finally had a chance to break free and make a bit more effort on the tear down on Leia's new heart.

Forgot how much of a PITA the stock downpipe/cat is, namely that one hidden bolt underneath & behind that held the heat shield on. Not concerned about re-using it, I took a little ISO27001 surveillance audit stress out on it.

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Nothing my favorite BFSH couldn't fix. Victory was mine. Going to throw this in the pile of scrap I have to haul to the recycler. The yard won't take it as they don't recognize what it came off of and they won't settle for the invoice & replacement part pictures. Oh well. Guess there are some honest recyclers here in town. Boxes underneath this are packed, wrapped and were sent off to WireGap for my harness conversion.

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End result of 30 minutes drinking and beating with the BFSH - ooooh shiny!

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Skipped a few pictures between the downpipe and loom removal. Engine looks to be in generally good shape.

Pulled the plugs - most of them soaking wet with oil. Looks like a valve cover/spark plug gasket replacement is in order.

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No issues turning it over by hand once all plugs removed. Felt like great compression with plugs in as well. Few dozen cranks of the engine - all marks lined up like a champ.

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Fairly normal underneath the timing covers - only oily mess I saw was from the power steering pump. Not a surprise though. It's a ST16x - they're meant to leak power steering fluid right?

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Looks like I had a passenger come all the way from overseas. Wouldn't have wanted to risk that chomp from him and risk SpiderRona.

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No other glaring signs of leaks aside from expected crusty around coolant lines. Have a couple coolant lines that were crushed/bent/cut I need to figure out where they route to and see if I need them still.

Main one right now under question is here. View from the intake of the engine:

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Engine driver side:

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Going to pull schematics and see how it routes. One of these weekends I'll roll it out in the driveway and flush the cooling passages both directions to flush any crapola outta there.

On the hunt now for all the timing components. Not going to run a chance on this, new water pump/belt/tensioners/seals/yadda yadda yadda is going in while I'm waiting the harness.

What's the hotness on those parts? Anybody state-side selling a gen5 kit to replace all that? Last time I did this on my Gen4 motor I ended up ordering directly from a dealer over in New Zealand to get all the parts.
 

Tippo

Well-known member
This is an awesome build, there was one guy at the Bear MT meet with a 5th gen swap in his 165. One thing, it definitely didn't fit without hood risers and a hood scoop to offsite the height difference with the stock i/c. The 5th gen sits a bit further forward and higher than the normal 3sgte but I'm assuming you already accounted for that.
 
Tippo":1mfiogoc said:
This is an awesome build, there was one guy at the Bear MT meet with a 5th gen swap in his 165. One thing, it definitely didn't fit without hood risers and a hood scoop to offsite the height difference with the stock i/c. The 5th gen sits a bit further forward and higher than the normal 3sgte but I'm assuming you already accounted for that.

Yep, I won't be going with the factory intercooler. As with my other swap, I'll relocate the battery to the back and install a remote intercooler off to the side. Thinking the Frozen Boost 350hp kit will suffice for what I need.
 
zaluss":29tmr2dw said:
Looks great. Which dp is that? BRD?

I bought it years ago (bought before I bought the engine actually) from PrimeMR2. I just happened to find out they have Gen4/5 timing kits available so looks like PrimeMR2 will be my supplier for that!
 
Two shipping notifications received!

One from Prime MR2, another from WireGap.

Looks like I'll have everything ready to refresh & wire up the motor by this weekend.
 

Tippo

Well-known member
4thgenceli":a05tlkfm said:
Two shipping notifications received!

One from Prime MR2, another from WireGap.

Looks like I'll have everything ready to refresh & wire up the motor by this weekend.


Absolutely stoked to see this put in, can't wait for the update
 

Tomas

Member
Tippo":35pgvg3u said:
4thgenceli":35pgvg3u said:
Two shipping notifications received!

One from Prime MR2, another from WireGap.

Looks like I'll have everything ready to refresh & wire up the motor by this weekend.


Absolutely stoked to see this put in, can't wait for the update
Cool project , I am sure is going to be an awesome ride!
 
Jesus...it feels like just yesterday I was working on it, but then the pictures and shipping stuff don't lie.... Between the holidays, relocating a regional office 3 miles one direction and 4 miles the other direction within a month, Y2K22 and Log4J.... I clearly lost all track of time.

Started the refresh of goodies. Water pump was first up. Old pump off, new pump in. I'm sure everyone has done a water pump before, so nothing stupid glamorous there.

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Next up was the oil pump gasket. Dropped the pump with a little silicon hammer love - new gasket went in and a little oil rub on the o-ring kept it in place while the pump slid in.

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I knew I had to replace the valve cover gasket anyway since #2/#3 spark plugs were swimming in oil when I pulled the plugs. Stupid clean and pretty inside this motor. From the cams, down to the oil pump galley and water pump & water passages...I haven't seen anything that would caution me about wanting to do a head gasket and/or bottom end.
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And as a good photographic evidence of why basic resealing is a good idea -- old oil o-ring gasket compared to new. Brittle, hard and flat. The valve cover gasket was just the same.
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Dropped the fuel rail to put new seals on it - but I'm not sure these are the right ones. The baggie showed Gen5, but they sure don't look the same. Maybe these are the superseded parts. I won't until I get some cross referencing done.

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Time to pull her out of the garage to start getting setup for the power plant install. Problem though - no extra manpower!

Problem solved - 4500lb winch FTW. It was shortly before this shot I discovered about 12' into the winch cable it was a bit frayed - that shit hurt. New synthetic rope & solid fairlead ordered - that'll be next weekend's project.

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GEEZE - she got DIIIRTY just sitting there in the garage. Chemical Bros foam cannon to the rescue!

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Ohhhh that's better. Definitely needs a good rub & polish - get that clear coat cleaned up. When wet - it looks AMAZING. The clear coat need a good cleaning to bring that shine on out.
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The inside needs a little cleaning - been used as parts storage the last couple years - getting a little dirty inside.

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Remaining parts ordered to (hopefully) result in engine & transmission mating and dropping it back in. Spent some time last night and finished up the front end reseal with the new timing belts and cam seals (remembered my trick of removing the cam caps). Timing still dead on from when i took it off. Lost one of my waterpump bolts so a quick run down to the hardware store for a couple replacements and replaced that dammed screw with a bolt.

Injector seals replaced and installed, resealed the valve cover with some awesome black goop in the corners after the cam seals were replaced.

Just waiting now on my ST185 flywheel to arrive, I'll get it turned and then hooked up to the SBC Stage2 clutch that came highly recommended.

Tonight will be the re-wiring day and I'll get the wiring harness re-connected to everything on the engine and reinstall the intake runners and torque down the downpipe once & for all.
 
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