While this is rather embarrassing, I've done a bunch of searching and haven't really come across a good answer for my question.

I know there's differences between the VIII and IX Block, due to MIVEC..

Are there any other easy identifiers to aid in distinguishing between the two? I'm going to go take a look at a couple of IX Blocks a local has, I've just never personally tore one apart, so I'm trying to find a way to identify whether it's A VII, VIII, or IX, Ext..

Any help would be much appreciated. Apologies for being "new", I'm just starting out in the Evo World.

It's not much but if the original valve cover is on the engine it'll say MIVEC.

I purchased a block out of an 8 for my evo 9 and the only difference, that I noticed, was the mivec oil feed line on the back of the block. It either needs to be tapped or you can buy the kit from JNZ tuning, which is what I did and it worked fantastic. I would say go with the cheapest block that you can find and get the conversion line.

Bryan