Update - the block from the engine I bought off eBay (which was previously sold by a forum member) was cracked in 5 places so I had to get another one. My engine builder hadn't noticed. Not happy! The new block is now ready and I am building it all now. Unfortunately due to me being a noob, I wrecked an oil ring when putting one of the pistons in. Now I have to wait for a new one to come from JE Pistons.
The head is all ready to go with 1mm oversized valves, new springs and 3SGE NA cams.
I have bought one of those custom head gaskets from ATS that have much better coolant flow than the 3SGTE head gasket.
Here are some pics -




 
 
 
 
 

Could you post some pictures comparing the head gasket to a std one

The coolant holes in the ATS gasket line up perfectly with the coolant holes in the 5SFE block.


 
 

 Here is some proof that I am making some progress with the 5SGTE, albeit slow progress
 

 

The motor looks awesome. Sorry to hear about the cracks in the block. How does the ST215 intake manifold flow compared to the gen 1 3sge intakes?

No idea. The one I'm using is 3SGE as far as I'm aware. Is it from a ST215?
I changed from the standard gen2 manifold because #1 and #4 don't flow as well as #2 and #3

I just checked - it is definitely 3SGE. The ST215 manifold is shorter and doesn't have double runners.

Here are the latest photos from my very slow 5SGTE build




 

Well that's a nice sight. Great to see you are almost there.

I had a crack at high flowing my wastegate ports today so I wouldn't get boost creep. It used to creep up to 18psi and then sit there. The wastegate exit holes had already been enlarged to 25mm diameter though I shaped the internals to help the flow.
Hopefully that will fix the problem.