laoseth

First, thanks to everyone for the quick responses. The 8 bolt thing is what I had heard can be a problem. The one thing making me hesitant about reusing the engine is the damage from the idler pulling out. It was the toothed idler and got ripped out hard, so the bolt sits about 15 degrees out line. Is that repairable? I know welding too aluminum is not easy. I've done head gaskets before so that's no problem.

It was at about 170k. Had just done the head gaskets about 15k miles before. Definitely wish i had done the idlers as well. :-\

One of the idler bearings on the front of my Phase 1 EJ25D seized, causing the idler pully to be ripped out of the block, and destroying the valves. I am looking to replace the engine, but have read various claims on the compatibility of the different years/tranny designs. I know that anything greater than 99 will be a phase 2 engine, but will any phase 1 engine drop in, assuming I switch out all the external components?