Thanks for the warm welcome fellas!!! I've been doing a lot of reading here and really appreciate the comradery and collaborative environment!
So... After a bit of research, the 2.3 in an '05-'07 only came in the ZX4 ST and it's a bit of a unicorn. Unfortunately, this is the 151hp version. The 2.3 in the '03-'04s were PZEV and 145hp. Since I live near a "green" state, they are slightly more common. [note: the engine code in the VIN is the 8th digit. "Z" gets you the 2.3L, while "N" is the more common 2.0L and "3" is the earlier 2. Zetec]
The plan has been to buy a running car that wasn't throwing codes so that we could pull all the "stuff" to make sure we knew what it looked like when we put it back together. We're still headed in that direction but it hasn't been easy to find the right car [we drove 2 hrs down to Providence to drive the only ZX4 ST on CL... only to learn that we wouldn't take it for free (quality father/son time tho!)]
So... we're more focused [pun intended] on a PZEV version and also looking at automatics - we're likely going to tune it and (per the suggestion) think the tranny can be tuned out.
Will keep you posted!
PS. Really good info here:
http://www.mypowerblock.com/m/group/dis ... %3A1337016