Ok, summing up. I'm putting all this info here for anyone it may help
Doing an engine in this vehicle is a kick in the nuts job. but, easier in the right order. So, lift up, jack stands, front tires, remove the headlights, bumper, hood, air cleaner and windshield washer assembly stuff, then the drive belt, then use a 13mm wrench on one of the water pump pulley bolts placing it so that it holds on one bolt and stops against another so you have leverage and probably do that thing you hook a second wrench for leverage and I personally use channel lock or pipe wrench for the big bolt on the fan, I don't have any really big wrenches like that, then take the fan and shroud, radiator, etc, then you can reach the alternator bolts with extensions and wobbly/u-joint set up from near the battery (take off the battery crossmember if you haven't already and maybe the battery) yes to use an impact or drill for everything you possibly can as it is faster!
Then you can reach the idler pulley and compressor bolts with wobbly or u-joint + extension from the drivers side inside the fender, there's even a hole through the frame for the lower left compressor bolt, then, air cleaner and plenum and wired connectors for all the sensors, oil, temp, spark, throttle, etc, and just pull the whole harness and set on top of the fusebox/ fender area, so it's out of the way, then bolts holding pcm to plenum, then plenum, then all the knock sensors, crank sensor and ground straps, remove all that, then the front axles,
Put a floor jack or trans jack under the trans, remove the 6 bolts on each side holding the crossmember to the frame and you may need to remove the ones holding the air solenoid box or whatever it is and then remove the front drive axles and lower the trans jack a few inches so you can get to all the bell housing bolts, the top 2 are just an amazing feat of engineering, you need somewhere around 3 feet of extension + a u joint or wobbly setup, but that's later. remove the starter if you havent already and use the starter hole + big screwdriver to turn the flexplate + 15mm to remove 3 torque converter bolts, then push the TC all the way in,
Then, I found that a tow strap, rather than the regular chain works great here, double it up and on the passenger side, put it behind the engine mount bracket and behind the hub thing the inner axle on passenger side goes in and under the oil pan and up and behind the water connections and up and tie both ends to make a loop, I do it this way bc the engine needs to come nose up first to clear the firewall and crossmember, so then undo the 18 mm bolts top and bottom of the mounts and use your cherry picker to lift it up and off the mounts and remove them and now you can lower the engine, make sure you don't set the harmonic balancer all the way down on the crossmember and this will give you max room to remove all the bellhousing bolts, then the #6 ignition coil so it doesn't get smashed up against the cowl, then, you lift the engine up and yes it needs to come nose up to clear both the crossmember and the firewall and don't worry the water connections will hold and as you lift, maneuver the AC compressor line around the front of it as you lift, you shouldn't have to undo the AC lines! Even if you have an AC machine to recover the refrigerant, it is better not to as you risk creating a leak where there isn't already one, it's fine even if you have to bend the AC line some, then pull the motor up and out and then remove both sides of the whole front diff assembly that the stupid a** POS engineers decided should go through the oil pan and put it on the new or used replacement motor and then do it all in reverse
The 08 motor will not work with 07 or earlier, period... precisely bc the cast into the crank reluctor has the 48x or 54x whatever sh*t and the exhaust cam phaser gear has 4 index points, one is double, instead of 6 with one double. The 07 or earler crank will work in the 08 motor but you also need to change the phaser, I had a computer that was from an 08 trying to get that 08 to start before doing all this, but it didn't work with 07 body electronics I had no spark and even trying it with the 04 motor it ran but threw a code about crank indexes unlearned or something. I also tried it with the 08 after changing the crank and it still threw the crank index code + wouldn't run with the newer cam phaser. The cam phaser from 05-07 should fit in all engines but idk if it works with the 54x reluctor crank. The older phaser will only fit in 02-04 engines.
Also it ran with the older crank + newer phaser if I unplugged the cam sensor, albeit it ran crappy. I found this by accident as I had removed the valve cover to check that my timing marks hadn't moved and when I plugged stuff back in I missed the cam actuator and sensor connectors somehow