Good times, kind of what I figured. The E6 heads are a big weakness, even if you swiched to untouched E7's, you would notice a good difference. It will all come with time.
haha, what a coincedence, I used to own a Escort before the 5.0. Actually 2, the LX was a turd and a half, the '95GT was actually pretty quick for what it was, faster than my GT was stock. I learned to drive partly on my uncle's 75 F100, but he had a 455 ols engine in it, Olsmoford.