Thank you everyone for your advice. I found a machine shop so I'm going to start taking things apart this weekend. Wish me luck! First BIG job. (I've done smaller ones)

best of luck

How did it turn out?

Where in FLa are you located? I have a complete t-birdsc engine sitting in my garage.

I'm in Miami. I haven't even started yet. Fighting the sending unit (see other thread) and had a bunch of kid related events appear.

Kids and work come first. Maybe I should take some pictures of my kids with the Mustang. It'll be fun when I get around to this. Since it's not my daily driver I haven't rushed.

I would suggest using the 99-04 head gaskets as they are supposed to be better than the 94-98 ones

"supposed to be" yes, in actuality, I'm not so certain. I've seen my fair share of 99-04 V6s with head gaskets that blew and we're exactly driven hard. My moms was one of them, a buddy of mine was another.

Well I did get a set of headgaskets from 99. I haven't picked up any of the other gaskets though.. And since I'm having trouble getting the sending unit back in I wonder if this is over my head.