Ernie, with all due respect and from the bottom of my heart...you are full of sh!t.
You've not run a Shelby block...you have blown the hell out of your iron block though.
$30k? Bullsh!t. I've got just about every highend thing that can be shoved into that lump of tin, including machining on the block and the Edlebrock heads, a Velasco crank, T&D stuff up top, originally had a solid roller, etc. and $26K covered it.
As to the rear mains...iron FEs don't leak back there? Since when?
Mine is not a real early block, so I don't know where the "cutoff" is in your analysis, though I do know the blocks have constantly evolved as new things are learned. My Velasco crank has backwards scribing to draw the
oil away from the rear, and those two little drain holes (about the size of hummingbird bungholes) were opened up and channeled into a nice rectangle that allows for more flow. I still leave a drop or two...so what?
I'd personally stick with a CSX block , but with Edlebrock heads, per my master builder's thinking. He was building FEs in the 60s...pretty rare (if not the only one) amongst the builders we commonly talk about.
Oh...and for what you're thinking of responding with...bite me.
