engine swap

hello everyone I am new to Tacoma world and to Toyota's I purchased my first Tacoma in March of this year I bought a 1998 Regular Cab 4 wheel drive with A 2.7 engine. I loved the truck. It had 208000 miles on it. I only put 3000 miles on it and found that I had to replace the head. I changed the head and drove it for a month and now problems on the lower end of engine. The shop tells me that the lower shaft is bad and lower timing gear and balancer is all striped and bad and it will cost me $ 3000 to 4000 to repair.it looks cheeper to by a jdm engine and put in. Has anyone had good luck with these engines? I have also found a complete 2.7 from a 2004 taco with only 40000 miles can I slap the 2004 engine in my 1998 and have it work without having to do any mods? Any help and advice would be appreciated.

 

I think after 2000 the 2.7s had coil on plug and yours may have a diffrent ignition system so the wiring harness may be diffrent. I would look into how hard that part of swapping them would be or you might could just use your current ignition system on the new motor.