experience strictly from reading a lot.
hmm.. '01 4.6is, babied to death and gorgeous is worth percisely painful for trade-in, so you buy one -here- for not much money.
You prefer the pre-facelift.
You have Gobs of money left over to chase everything killcrap mentioned and more (and there is a Lot more, just not specific to 4.6/4.8).
You will have a sweet ol' X'er and confidence that the probs have been fixed correctly cuz you were there.
since you don't want a MT, seems one choice.

__________________
carpe` cevesi
knf

01 topaz e53 3i 5m 120k mi =
$9.7K + $2.4K when seller says "needs nothing" (131K)

Drew Cary: I love driving stewpid in hella thunderstorms.. I roll stop-signs.. get pulled over, the high-school cop says, "Do you know why I pulled you over?"
I say, "Sure.. do you know why I did it?"

2012 Election: Congress has determined that government beatings of all taxpayers must continue until morale has improved

Gone: '67 Galaxie LTD 2D aqua, 72 Pinto, 76 Elite, e12 track.. long road