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You don't need a new pan, just use a time-sert or even a helicoil. This happens all the time and I've never heard of anyone replacing the pan for it. Aluminum is much softer than stainless and would dent much more easily if you hit something, and a dent near the pickup tube will cause problems. Use grease on the tap to catch shavings and dump a qt of oil in after you finish to flush it out just in case

It doesn't lend much confidence to your mechanic that he wouldn't know this before ordering an engine from a different year. ECUs are almost always year/model/trim specific, even if the plugs match they're usually not interchangeable. You can take your chances going by just the year but if you don't want to waste more time and money chasing trouble lights you need the part number. Plug your VIN in here and find the one you need - https://www.epc-data.com

I like low miles too, to a point but he's right that it does come with problems. You can bet this car has significant ethanol varnish deposits throughout the system from old fuel sitting and is going to need filters changed, lines flushed, and injectors serviced, which one that ran more wouldn't need. Cooling system is another area where old fluid, especially the green stuff that's probably still in this car, can start to rust things and deposit this rust in the block. I had one mint low mile 4Runner I bought years ago that I assumed just needed a tune up and wound up needing the engine torn down to the block for this reason. Of course it will also probably need seals replaced as you mentioned, definitely a timing belt job, and probably the ECU caps in addition to the fluid flushes. Several grand in maintenance right off the bat if taken to a mechanic. I prefer cars under 120k miles if they're automatic mostly because even many dealers that perform transmission fluid changes when they're supposed to only do a drain and refill, leaving 80% of the old fluid in.

Does it have air suspension? (Was that even a thing in 93?) I was considering a comparable car with comparable miles here in the northeast (no rust) years ago, that was mint except for some clear coat beginning to wear through, they were asking ~$4k if I recall correctly. It didn't last long. I wouldn't pay anywhere near $8k but you might find someone who would if you sit on it for long enough.

Just bought a new '98 GS400, 111k miles, dealer maintained, no codes, runs and shifts strong. Body has some scratches and hail damage so I got what I hope turns out to be a good price. It has a pretty severe vibration at high speeds, get noticeable maybe around 50 and by 80 I'm shaking in my seat. It seems load dependent - stronger under accel and decel than cruising. Mounts and CVs seem OK, the vibration damper is a little cracked and I'll probably replace now but doesn't seem terrible The center support bearing seems to allow quite a bit of play but the rubber is solid and shows no signs of cracking anywhere, so I assume its supposed to behave like this? When I wiggle the front shaft though I hear a noise which seems to be the splines moving around. It looks like a sort of compression fitting to me, anyone know if that's the case? If so, should I try to tighten it up a bit or better to leave it loose so it slides? Here's a video of what's going on there. https://youtu.be/CVqdMOTHQww

Back from the dead, here's hoping Howie is still subscribed to this thread... Could you update on the longevity of the Megan coilovers? I'm debating between these or sticking with KYB on my '99. Any idea how many miles/years you got out of them (or are they still going strong)?

Okay, this might be silly, but just checking: did you ever have it work with the trunk? If not, do you know that you have to hold the trunk release button on the remote for at least two full seconds before it will pop? Again, just checking, sometimes it's the simple stuff we don't think of. I was wondering why after finally getting the programming to take on the lock/unlock buttons the trunk button still wasn't working. This was it!