Dan, Baer makes a direct replacement rotor for the Alcons. I forget the part number. If it's the first time you have replaced the rotors with Baers then you need to do their bump steer kit also. No big deal. If I remember, both rotors were under $500.
Are you familiar with the Extremes? They have forged internals and are built from the ground up like you want and have more power than a cobra!
Sounds as if you have already made up your mind. You really narrowed your search options though if you are dead set on an N/A S351. Only 3 1996's were N/A cars so you have to look for 94-95's. All of those eec4. The reason N/A motors fail also is simply because they are over driven with the stock Saleen tune. SVT touched breifly on Saleen's tuning issues/ woes. It was a feat to get 371 hp outa it then, especially with that lousy intake. The car makes peak hp and torque just under 4,000 rpm and it will rev to 5,500. The Edlebrock Performer cylinder heads ache also. The car does not rev out of the box. Period. IF you were able to get a low mileage car that has not been abused and were able to burn a new chip for it, get it some more fuel, you would be ok. Remember, still you are driving an 11 year old truck motor in your car with warmed over 5.0 technology on top. If you are in the market for an S351 mustang and you don't know EVERY single day of service history on the car make sure you have shortblock money waiting. You will be glad you did.
The car I am looking at has been owned by what sounds like a meticulous owner. The injectors were upgraded to 36lbs. He had some heating issues with the car so he put a fan control unit in the car that allows one to adjust when the fan turns on (in the glove box is the control). He had an idling problem with the car so he bought the Pro M optimizer that has two manual adjusted screws. One screw adjusts the low end idle, the other adjusts for high RPM. Since this is on and adjusted with his 36lb injectors, he said it runs perfect - no idle wavering etc.... As well what is wrong with EEC4? I heard there is not chip in it and the entire comuter would have to be remapped???? As well, what should one do with the intake? What are wrong with the Edelbrock Performer heads? Even if I had a short block, would you say based on what you know I could put the short block in, and because of everything around it, the engine would ignite again as it sounds like the components around the short block? Thanks for the input so far...