Fantastic news! I was half expecting this thread to be a long one with a big fight!

Great news! Obviously, there is a bit of work and time to pass before champagne corks are popping but it sounds like you have a good route to recovery there.

Contrary to popular belief, there are a number of dealers and traders who will "do the right thing" because it is their rep on the line. I know a lot don't and they hope that today's bad news becomes tomorrow's chip wrapping stuff....basically goes away. But building a good rep takes years - destroying it takes minutes.

Update. 

While waiting for the update on condition of the bores and piston etc as they said they will call me. It's been a few days so I contacted the garage today and have been in formed that they have already rebuilt most the motor with new crank, rods, main and big end bearings, oil pump. They say the oil pump seized and this damaged the big ends making them slip on the crank. Has anyone heard of an oil pump seizing and doing this on their sti?  Unfortunately I'm working away and not returning until Saturday afternoon hence not been in to see it. They have not taken photos of condition of pistons etc as requested, they say they were fine!  So I have to take their word for it 😩   I was going to get it forged as motor was stripped but they've gone too far. They have no answer for not calling me before the rebuild. I have email today saying what they've replaced for new. Will be getting them to give me written evidence stating the condition of pistons & motor when I pick it up for what its worth? Or am I just getting paranoid?? Get car back beginning Jan after the Xmas break. In a good world it will come back fine. Shame couldn't get it forged as it was stripped. 

I had an old motor rebuilt that appareny had new pistons put in. I asked for the old ones as a keep sake and sneaky proof but funnily they went missing. I then asked to see invoices for the new parts and they refused suggesting they weren't allowed to issue them. Young and easily led back then so wasn't sure what to do. Definitely ask for the old bits but prepare for "they're already in the bin". Ask for receipts of work with full break down of parts for service history and explain it will help value the car. Even if they won't issue an invoice with prices they can give you a parts list. How truthful and accurate it is will depend on dealer but do far they seem fair enough.

not come across oil pump seizure - oil starvation yes but not seizure

Yep +1 on oil starvation due to exessive cornering (when on track or low on oil) or a broken oil pick up but I can't say I've heard of a pump seizing before .

Even the uprated oil pumps that rcm sell are a standard subaru item with a uprated pressure release valve .

Iv never heard of this happening

In fact is it even possible the oil pump is run of it crank wich means it would of striped the crank or the pump gear both of which would of been extremely hard to do

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Sounds more and more like its had a failure before and not been repaired properly. As soon as they mention bearings it def points to previous headgasket failure and the bottom end didnt get done

I had an old motor rebuilt that appareny had new pistons put in. I asked for the old ones as a keep sake and sneaky proof but funnily they went missing. I then asked to see invoices for the new parts and they refused suggesting they weren't allowed to issue them. Young and easily led back then so wasn't sure what to do. Definitely ask for the old bits but prepare for "they're already in the bin". Ask for receipts of work with full break down of parts for service history and explain it will help value the car. Even if they won't issue an invoice with prices they can give you a parts list. How truthful and accurate it is will depend on dealer but do far they seem fair enough.

Any proper garage / builder would do this for you anyway

As for oil starvation a snapped oil pick up is much more likely than a seized pump unless you dropped all your oil somewhere

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Have you checked to see if its still got a sump lol hahahaha sorry I couldn't resist :D

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So I got my car back on Saturday. Went to pick it up and told they've replaced all parts mentioned in my previous post and at no cost to me which is good. I am currently running it in slowly. Done 140 miles over the weekend not revving above the 3k mark and seems well,  sounds fine, not using oil, not smoking or overheated and so on ....

Sitting here and unfortunately my paranoia kicked in and thought I'd just check my engine number just in case of a swapped motor as its only done 41000 miles on this engine. I know all the auxiliaries fitted are the same as I took a photo of engine bay prior to it going to garage and marked, with felt pen, some of the parts and they are still there. I'm aware of this post may sound a bit of an over worry but I spent loads to get this car and really want what I've been told it was.

My question is where exactly is the engine number? Can it be seen from looking down on the engine? I've located a couple of numbers. 1 just behind the alternator, slightly above and to the right of the EJ25 stamp and other on the passenger side of motor I think not far from starter. But non of these match my log book .

So where's the correct location for the engine number guys? 

There's an etched number on the left of the alternator, sort of underneath the rad hose and behind the power steering pump, but I've never cross referenced it against the logbook, to double check,

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