Since I have to remove the heads on my 98 T/A to get to the lifters, should I take them to get machined? Basically the car has about 140k miles on it, the engine area isn't as quiet as it was when I purchased it at 42k miles, and I want some more horsepower. I have about $2500 to play with, and can do most of the labor. What do you guys suggest?

 

In my opinion, if you're looking for horsepower, you're not likely to find it in those heads (assuming they're stock). For $2500 you could easily do a heads/cam swap if you're interested.

I have less than that into all new bearings, cleaned up set of used heads, cam, lifters, push rods, and a full gasket set in my rebuild.