Thanks everyone.  Last weekend I finished a week long project and about 8months of research and thinking.  Many of you responded to my posts over the same time period so thank you.

I have an 88 5.0 with a motor from an 89 Lincoln Town Car.  Thankfully, the motor had been rebuilt once and has pistons with valve reliefs in it.  Anyway, after alot of thinking and analyzing and financing I removed the E6 heads and replaced them with Ebay special GT40 F1ZE heads. As a bonus the new heads came with Ford SVO 1.6 roller rockers already installed.  A very good deal.  Originally, I was thinking Edlebrock or maybe AFR heads, then Ford's Y303 GT40 alums, but finally the money issue won out and I got a deal on some used cast heads.  I paid to have them checked out before install and all was good.  I probably put about 20 hours into the head swap, but things are working well. I now have about 115 miles on the new combination.  I'm hoping to get to the dyno this Saturday so I can see what the difference really is (I have a baseline).

I had never been that far into the motor before so it was real exciting to hear the car run and then not be able to find any leaks.  I think the biggest mistake I made was not draining the coolant from the block before removing the head bolts. 

By the way, I did retorque the head and intake bolts after letting the car heat up to normal temperature.  That was a good idea as ALL of the intake bolts needed it and two of the head bolts needed it. 

The car is a little different now.  My wife thinks it's a little smoother.  It does pull a bit harder, but it's not like before it was slow and now it's fast.  Can't wait to see how the graph looks. 

Cool.  All sounds good.  Let me know the numbers.  I'd be curious to know the difference.

Wow.  I don't think I could be happier at this stage.

Last year: 203 HP and 250 torque.  Today 263 HP and 280 torque!  (per Ford literature, the E6 heads were known to provide some torque)

What a difference a year makes.  Changes from last year:

electric fan vs water pump driven, F1ZE GT40 cast heads, SVO 1.6 roller rockers, timing = 13 deg, remove air conditioner

The torque curve is 1000 rpm longer before it starts to drop off (3800 vs 4800)!  Today it built power all the way  to redline when I shut it down. Last year, power began to drop off at 5100.

Car setup:   Cobra computer, Cobra mass air, cold air fender kit, Performer RPM II intake, E cam, GT40 heads, BBK full length headers, 70mm throttle body, 24# injectors, MSD distributor & coil, electric fan.

Investment: heads with roller rockers from Ebay includes check out $570, plus gaskets and bolts.  Seems like a pretty good return to me.

Now, I'm ready to take the car to Bandimere Speedway.  Oh yeah, car doesn't idle very well once it's warm and I shut it off. Idles fine when I first start it cold, but after driving it to get gas, as soon as I restart it the idle hunts around and almost sounds like the car will stall out.  That's actually been a problem for a while now, but still drives me crazy.