Thread: Need sk and xe 429 wedge parts I dont have 1968-71

Tweet

Originally Posted by rspears

Dave,
Welcome to CHR! I notice that "Erie" is a small town south of Ottawa, KS on Hwy 59. You say that you're looking for heads, but you've posted a picture of one head; then you ask for "...any parts that I don't have to finish the engine"; and then for leads on a specific car that you're looking for? Maybe if you'd give a summary of what you've actually got on hand, or specifically what you're needing there might be someone that can help. Do you have a car that you're working on? Your list is a little vague at this point other than the oil cooler unless you're just wanting to amass any parts that you can find. Have you tried a basic Google Search, like for "ford fe engine parts" - https://www.google.com/search?q=ford...e+engine+parts

I do not like speaking openly about this car as some in the past, including the person restoring the car stole several parts off of it.
The picture is to help recognize the head but is not of any I own as mine are gone. I am also now missing the original distributor, front engine brackets, original exhaust, air cleaners and several small parts.

The intake on my car is the dual quad 2x4 setup. Thankfully the intake and carbs were being restored by someone else and are still complete on the car.

From what I have been told these parts were designed to replace the Boss 429 but eventually became the SCJ 429 parts in 1970 and on. Carbs were the basically the same as used on the 428 dual quad cars. Lee Holman ended up giving one his friends the owner of Blue Thunder one of the original SK dual intakes and now the reproductions have been available through them. But until I found this car no one knew of a car that had the dual four Holley intake installed on it by Ford.

SK galaxies were built in late 1968 using the earliest 69 bodies. These are test bed cars and not exactly meant for continuous use. They were supposed to be returned to Ford after testing and destroyed however this one wasn't returned and ended up being sold to a farmer in rural Kansas. To top things off it is a 4 door sedan with a 4-speed and posi 9 3/8 rear with disc in the front and 12in drums in the rear. Engine oil cooler with the prototype oil adapter and power steering cooler. However to show they never intended for long term use the car was built with a 2 core radiator and over heated badly and was taken in for service by the owner several times. The car was parked with only 30k+ miles on the odometer. To quote the farmer "the cost to drive it was too much" and he would someday get around to working on it, in reference to fixing the cooling problem.

This car is from one group that was made up of 10 galaxies built using this platform to test these particular parts. As there was no production 4-speed sedans built in 1969, all 10 cars were truly not DOT approved and ran on the road without the blessing of the government. All 10 sedans tested had different setups but all were the same in the fact they were 429, bench seat 4-speed, 4 door cars, with custom Kar Kraft drive shafts and transmissions. Mine has the SK long block as well as the pilot interior to include prototype inside rear window louvers, rear mounted antenna and hood tach. There were other "groups" of test vehicles that included coupes and trucks, these as well had SK and XE parts, so the parts are out there.

And yes this is documented with Marti Autoworks and Ford now. The car had the original bill of sale, manual and warranty card in the glove box as well as hand typed buidsheets under the front and back seats. It took this documentation and an interview with Lee Holman of Holman and Moody to convince Ford I really had the car. I have been told recently at least one other SK sedan and one SK coupe were spotted in the northern states decades ago but it is unknown if they still exist.

SK parts are not all together that valuable unless you have one of these cars. They do not perform quite as well as SCJ parts and no where near as well as Boss parts, but they are the parts that helped make the latter come to be. And most that have been found today in the midwest have been found reinstalled on industrial equipment and mud trucks as they worked well for high torque engines. The intake setup, rear window louvers and shifter on mine didn't make it to production so I don't know what value any of those would have, and thankfully I still have them.