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Coming from someone who interned in an iron foundry, you'd be surprised at how complex a designed cast in iron really becomes. Where I worked we used core machines (the part that goes into hollow space of a casting) that were used by Ford supplier plants. The molds just to make the cores cost into the XX,XXX thousands, that that doesn't include design time by engineers. That is just the machine to make the empty space. The mold forms used in the machines slso runs into XX,XXX thousands. Then you need to purchase the machines to make the molds, plus the furnaces...and the sand systems...ungodly amount of capital in a modern casting. Thats why back then they did it with what they could and utilized craftsmen to make the parts. Hence why you exhaust manifold was built on the cheap and was probably cut, hand bent, and assembled on the motor by three different people and transported by another two. And those five workers were still cheaper than machines!
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