My gawd. You achieved all that for $2k labour (whatever that is) and $1.6k in parts!? Firstly, I applaud your posts/pics. Very motivational. Secondly, should the magic tree ever fall on your glorious red beauty's rear half, please send the motor my way. I'll give you the first ride in the only 4.6is wagon on the planet and perhaps a bottle of your favorite rum.

No shop I know of here would touch that project for less than $6 and that's with me providing parts at wholesale.

Oh, what is this labour stuff of which you mentioned?

Very cool. I would love to see what a brand new engine on one of these would feel like.

ADAS--
The short answer is yes, you want the 4.6is. I know there's no real good argument for that statement but it's true. The best thing you can feel the first day and the last is the rarity. There's like 1,200 of these world-wide. No offense to my 3.0, 3.5, 4.4 and 4.8 petrol (that was for you transportador)brethren but at a stoplight amongst the 600,000 other X5's out there, "it's got 11". It's something that adds an intangible value to whomever knows what it is and envy in those who have no idea and after all, don't we all want something special even if its only special to ourselves. I enjoy seing drivers in the other e53's do a double-glance at the side badge. It makes me smile when my wife sees a 4.4 and says "4.4, honey they have a little motor too, like in your car." (honestly if I have to explain displacement to her one more time I'll kill myself. I told her that the "is" meant It's Special)
There are faster rigs, more nimble rigs but this motor was a very special thing. Given the option to do it over again, I'd stay with it. It's a motor that sings. The effortless climb in rpm starts softly with a gurgle that changes to a wonderfully ellegant menagerie of chaotic discourse between force and redirection distilled into a chorus of apocryphal glory and prophetic carnage that just before a gear shift makes you want to push your foot through the firewall just to see what lies on the other side of heaven... Naked.

Woah, sorry, right. Short answer: Yes, get one.