Patrick,
I was only meaning that the water pump and block had the Shelby stamp on them, not that they were "orginal" in any way.
In regard to $20K FE's I tend to think they go in Cobras most often and Mustangs occasionaly as said before. If weight is not the concern, seems like Ford owners go to the 429/460/514 and so on route.
Mine tends to have a nice lopey idle and never sees the 5500 rpm mark. 5k rpm is about all I have the kohunas for as things at that RPM happen very fast.
My block was earlier in the series (597) but it was well built. No issues thus far.
Phil