The FE gods have smiled down upon me.

[Tommy-T]

This kind of thing was relatively common in the late '70's going into the '80's.

Nothing sinister going on, the owner of the GT500 probably wanted to make his Shelby run. So he had a 427 or a derivative installed and was happy as a clam. Sold the CJ motor and got some money back. No big deal.

When I was a teenager and into my 20's, here in SoCal there were a number of GT500's, Boss 429's, and other what we now call exotic muscle car bodies available without engines available for quite reasonable. Why the engines were missing could have any number of reasons, the most likely a resto or hop up project abandoned. The stolen engine scenario, certainly possible, is more of an urban legend.

At that time not many folks figured that Baby Boomers would be willing to spend stupid, I mean REALLY STUPID, money on these old cars.   

[turbohunter]

I remember those days Tommy.
We used to hang out at each other’s stations we were working at.
Engine swaps were common and we only cared about Wednesday night cruising and the races after.
Of course my 289 was a different world than this.

[WConley]

Yeah I would have a hard time believing the owner's girlfriend's dad would pull a fast one on him.  I bet it was hotter engine swap with headers, etc. as Tommy describes.

I remember those days too!  I grew up in CT, and there was a '69 L88 Corvette that was well known in the area.  The L88 is a beast, but can be a bit hard to live with.  The owner ended up having it swapped out for a lower spec 427 so he could actually enjoy the car.  It was a couple of decades later that a subsequent owner was able to track down that L88 engine and reunite it with his car...

[turbohunter]

Just got off the phone with Gary Bowman the car owner.
Gonna get together with him this coming week.

[jayb]

Excellent!  I can hardly wait LOL! 

[475fetoploader]

That’s great! How cool is this?

[WConley]

Awesome Marc!  It will be great to hear more of the story 

[cleandan]

This is the kind of "reality show" I can spend some time watching.

Pretty neat story, and good on you for taking the time, and giving the effort, in order to figure this thing out. Plenty of others would have taken a lesser route.

[turbohunter]

It’s fun
I’ll fill you guys in on the whole story after I meet with the owner.
Pretty cool.

[Gregwill16]

Wow Marc you need to go by some lottery tickets while you are at it. Best of luck and maybe you can start working on another one.

[WConley]

I can see the conversation now.

Marc:  I have the numbers matching 428 CJ that your car was born with.

Shelby Owner:  The car has a 427 SOHC in it now.  Wanna trade even up?

[turbohunter]

LOL
Well,,,,,, he did say he had a CJ with close numbers that he was going to use.
He seems like a very nice man.

[gt350hr]

Just got off the phone with Gary Bowman the car owner.
Gonna get together with him this coming week.

    Gary is a great guy and you are doing a great thing for him . I know he has a nice CJ  that he was going to use. Wait until you see the car , you will see what I mean about "doing the right thing" in this case. Nice of you to do the homework!
     Randy

[jayb]

Randy, it is a remarkable coincidence that you know the owner of the car that Marc has the engine for.  This thread just keeps getting better LOL!

[gt350hr]

   It is actually amazing Jay. I have helped Gary with all kinds of stuff for almost thirty years. When I saw the name and remembered the engine was out here , I put two and two together. I think he knew the engine was in a pickup truck but couldn't find it. Now to get back the original is really cool. Gary has another GT500 and does all of his own restoration work He has a '70 Boss 302/347 and a couple of '66 Shelby clones. It would be hard to find a nicer guy.