Large-space no-core shell model calculations have been performed for 3 H, 4 He, 5 He, 6 Li, and 6 He, using a starting-energy-independent two-body effective interaction derived by application of the Lee-Suzuki similarity transformation. This transformation can be performed by direct calculation or by different iteration procedures, which are described. A possible way of reducing the auxiliary potential influence on the two-body effective interaction has also been introduced. The many-body effects have been partially taken into account by employing the recently introduced multi-valued effective interaction approach. Dependence of the 5 He energy levels on the harmonic-oscillator frequency as well as on the size of the model space has been studied. The Reid 93 nucleon-nucleon potential has been used in the study, but results have also been obtained using the Nijmegen II potential for comparison.