I think you may be giving this project too much thought - there is a lot of room underneath to access the few things you need to without jacking the vehicle up. 95% of this job is top down and a simple step stool will suffice for reaching a bit deeper. 👍
This is a valid point! I fold and place a cheap moving blanket over the grill and radiator support but removing the bolts and just pushing the latch down would work nicely.
Just adding to this (there are a ton of threads out there so trying to keep this unique to my experience and opinion):
I do timing belt service along with a refresh of my cooling system as I do my timing belts at 90-100k and coolant flushes every 50k. It's a natural thing to couple with the...
In the highly unlikely case the motor has been replaced, it's going to have been replaced with a motor from the same year range. But to confirm just make sure the VINs match. There are VINs stamped on the chassis, windshield location and motor...