VG30i / VG30e short block, long block, cylinder head interchange?

[TheRadBaron]

My '87 Pathfinder with the VG30i recently suffered some significant engine damage when it blew a head gasket and overheated. A few of the pistons are damaged and the bores are scuffed and scraped. I'm looking into the options available to get my truck back on the road. I'm considering having the engine bored and installing new pistons but it would (or could) be a lot quicker and easier to buy a good used engine and just swap it out. I'm finding a lot more of the newer VG30e motors locally and I'm wondering if I could use the long block or short block from one of these instead of having to locate an early "i" motor like mine.

I'd love just swap the "e" long block into my truck and use my "i" intake and everything. Looking around on Rockauto suggests that the "i" and "e" motors used the same heads. I'm hoping that they used the same blocks, cranks, etc, too. Looking at part numbers for long blocks might suggest that the cranks/crank snouts are different between the two, though.

Anyone have any insight? Thanks.

[Citron]

Take this with a grain of salt, but l believe that the 30i and 30e were the same short block up until 96, which is when they switched to a different balancer on the 30e.

[Slartibartfast]

Guys bolt the VG30I intake to VG33Es, should be no issue putting it on a VG30E.

[TheRadBaron]

Thanks for the info. I think I'm going in a different direction now, though. I have a '99 Pathy with the VG33 that's about dead from rust. I'm going to look into swapping that engine and engine management system into mine. I'm going to start a thread about that so please chime in if you have any insight.