My Mach 1
429
Super Cobra Jet
Project

John Blair's Long Lost Engine
by Paul Cassel

In my search for a correct 429 SCJ engine, I had sent off a query to John Blair, owner and creator of the 429 SCJ/CJ Mustang and Cougar Mega site, (http://429mustangcougarinfo.50megs.com) asking if he was aware of an engine source.   John suggested that I contact a friend of his - Joe Nowak in Detroit - who John said had a fully rebuilt engine.   I subsequently contacted Joe and made arrangements for my restoration guru Steve Waechter and me to visit Joe this past December 10th , 2006.   

Let's Back Up to 1977
In 1977 John Blair was a 17-year-old high school kid who was enthralled with the 71-73 Mustang.  He worked all that summer at several jobs and saved up $2,000 then started searching for a car.  A 71 Mach 1 was found advertised in a local classified and John went out to see it. (read John's story of his 71 here)  As you will read in John's story, the car he found was a one-owner 429 Super Cobra Jet car. Unfortunately for John, the owner had removed the 429 to built a Mustang II race car. He had replaced the 429 with a 351 Cleveland.   Since John had tapped out all of his savings to buy the car, trying to purchase the original engine at the time was out of the question at the time.

Jump Forward 22 Years .....
In 1999 John had some surplus cash and, as he related the unlikely tale to me, his wife convinced him to live out his dream of restoring the car back to a 429 car. John immediately thought of trying to track down the original engine. He got as far as the original owner, only to learn sadly the engine has been sold years earlier.  So the search moved on and as you can read in more detail on John's web site, he subsequently found a 429 engine in Georgia and has been enjoying his restored 429 SCJ ever since.

December 9, 2006 - "WOW!"

close-up of VIN for John's Mach 1 from original factory invoice

With John Blair being a true supporter of authenticity in restorations, he had sent me an email on the 9th of December showing how to ID the engine VIN serial to confirm the engine was in fact from a Mustang and not from a Cougar or Torino. To confirm to John that Joe's engine was an original F1 Mustang, I emailed him back and for some reason I included the full engine VIN of F123775 along with a photo of the  engine VIN I was proposing to purchase. (see photo at left)   Well when John got that email his heart no doubt missed a few beats as there staring him in the face was the VIN of the long-lost original 429 engine from his own 71 Mach 1. 

Knowing that John should have first crack at the new found engine, I offered to make a deal in exchange for the 429 engine he had finally sourced back in 2000. Unfortunately given John's university aged kids along with the uncertain future at Ford, he was just not in a position to have any surplus cash or the time to basically start over.

More Trivia

Now it turns out the entire cast of players involved with this car including the Ford dealership that originally sold John's 429. the car's original owner, the car's current owner, John Blair, and the guy who sold me the elusive engine, Joe Nowak- are all within 10 minutes of each other. As I was leaving town John and I were able to have a tailgate reunion at a Dunkin Donuts so John could finally touch and see and touch the engine he has been seeking for almost 30 years. (see adjacent photo of John and me and the long lost SCJ engine)

John's Megasite for Mustang and Cougar 429 cars is an unbelievable collection of information on restoring the 429 Mustang and Cougar containing over 500 megs of information and photos.  Over the past 7 years, John has collected valuable information on these rare muscle cars and continues to build the gold-standard of restoration resources.

By the way, the engine I got from Joe Nowak was rebuilt as a true performance engine, stroked back to a 460 with a Holbrook ported and polish job on the heads. Also all of this took place within 10 minutes of NPD the huge aftermarket parts outlet so Steve and I took the opportunity to drop some additional cash in parts needed for my project as well as Steve's 69 428 SCJ project.

If you have any surplus parts, please check out my WANT PAGE
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