[rotorwrench]

Even the price of the SoCal/SF Flathead/French blocks are over $2K now but they had to add in the cost of the changes they made to them. They have been for sale on flea-pay for some time now so it's not exactly like they're selling like hot cakes. I think the 4-inch cranks & rods sold fairly well but the blocks, more slowly. I'm sure they will eventually get them all sold though. After that, a new block might get more attention than it does now. By then, the price will likely be higher still.

The photo of the internal cores gives a good idea of the complexity but the shell core is missing from the photo. I'm sure it was the first one that went into the box and formed the outer shell of the block. It may also have been more than one piece but most folks will get the idea anyway. I wish FoMoCo had included some of these casting procedures in there films of engine manufacture. It would be real interesting to watch them wire all that stuff in there. Ford probably wouldn't have wanted anyone to see that stuff since it was proprietary information. At least not until the engines were superseded but by then, no one would have cared one way or the other.