I feel your pain, I'm in the same situation, Texas car, 177k miles, ran on E30, daily driven for 7 years. Issues started two weeks ago with a slight stumble on start up. I took the car to a shop and confirmed coolant was getting into #3 cilylinder. Shop told me the same, the labor to remove the head while the motor is still in the car makes it a huge PIA, and it would be less labor to remove and replace the entire motor. Not to mention the risk of doing all that labor only to find a cracked head or cylinder wall. I was advised to look for a used motor or buy a new longblock from Ford.
I was able to drive it home and I started working on removing the head to determine if the head or block were cracked. I can confirm that taking the head off while motor is in the car is a huge pain in the ass. I was able to leave the timing belt on the lower crank pulley but did have to remove the cams in order to take the head bolts off.
My head did not look bad, surprisingly the valves were not cacked up with carbon deposits either (no catch can). I'm going to send the head off to get checked so that I can determine how to move forward. Honestly I don't think I will put a new motor in, if the head is bad I may end up getting rid of the whole car.
Good luck on your endeavors.
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