his pictures showed differing trigger marks though i was confused what was which engine and which were from youtube.

So, the crank sprockets were the same, but there is a definite difference between the cam pulleys. 

 

She's running great now!

 

Well that's a first. I've never seen the new style crank sprocket with the old style cam.

The one on the right is the old style. You can certainly see why the ECU would flip out and set a code with the wrong sprocket there.

The owner of the 2005 donor engine had it sitting in a 2003 impreza wagon that he never got around to finishing. I wonder if he swapped the driver side cam pulley but left the crank sprocket on, which is how I seem to have ended up with a new style crank sprocket and old style cam pulley. I've yet to find this crank / cam combo on any other forum or image search. Kudos to my local Subaru dealer tech for nailing it after a 10 second conversation. 

If you'd like to get rid of the extra new style crank sprocket I could use one for a project.

If you'd like to get rid of the extra new style crank sprocket I could use one for a project.

 

Sure. Might be cost prohibitive with shipping from Canada though.

I didn't notice that before, you're probably right.

change the throttle body. i am 150% sure they are different between auto and standard. if your car originally had an auto for example and you use 5 speed throttle body its wont have the same throttle and fuel methods used to run itself.   automatic throttle positioning sensors are completely different from standards because you control the throttle manually. the crank pulley does matter. use these components from your original engine: 1- crank pulley for timing belt, 2- throttle body ( if engines are auto and 5spd swapped) 3- probably the most comon to miss, make sure your vaccum lines and routing are the same.  i have done lots of these swaps. and have built lots of engines using 06 blocks with 02 heads- gotta swap pistons to clear heads. 03 legacy build for 08 impreza, wrx highbrid builds with forester pistons( wrx=22cc forester=24cc)  it helps i have an interchange system through hollander sollutions.   try the throttle body because from what i have read on your post thats the thing you have mentioned about yet  and the 99-04 have completely different engine harness plug ends that run to the ecm.    hope this helps dude!!!!