Reading your tread just reminded me of my R.I.P, Beamtech 4000.
The 4000 has similiar design on what your talking about, but this has a multi-emitter drop-in. I have to say that it's junk. I couldn't even give it away. Well truth be told I was giving it away for parts because it broke as the design couldn't handle the heat and the LEDs/driver melted. The light wasn't even driven that hard to begin with.
Sorry, don't mean to poo poo on the idea but it just seems like an uphill battle. Hope you guys get something going that works.