The factory oil pan is not set up for the radial G forces produced by hard driving, hard cornering, or rapid direction changes. An extra capacity oil pan is a must in hard corner and rapid direction changes. With that said, if your car has a stock oil pan, its a good bet the bearings ran dry a few times. And with that said....in a modular engine, the 1st location to show signs of oil starvation is the camshaft journals. This is a sure fire check when scouting a good salvageable engine. Pulling a few cam journal caps on each head will reveal if the engine is worth buying. However, ive seen cam journals that have went dry, revealing damage but the engine still running strong.
The 1st location of over heating is #4 and #8 cylinders. These cylinders are prone to overheat in 5.4l under heavy loads and signs of headgasket seepage is revealed by oil and water between the block and head. You might be able to get under the car and inspect those areas for water/oil. Overheating changes the headbolts ability to maintain their designed clamping force. The bolts are stretch when installed. Adding heat beyond design causes them to fail, in turn failing headgaskets.
Pull the spark plug wire out and inspect for water on the wire boot. Any water in the sparkplug hole will cause a modular all kinds of rabbit hole problems. If no water in hole, pull all the plugs out and perform a compression test while the engine is warm