What I was reading a Forum on another site, They had a 60 T Bird with a 430 CU IN??/ So my question is that is this engine a FE if so does any body have any knowlage as to what the specs compared to any of the other FE's FE & FT Big Block V8 (332, 352, 360, 390, 406, 410, 427, 428)

 

Some specs here:

Ford MEL engine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

An early pillow barge motor. Big and heavy and powerful for their time. Some racing history according to the story. Died and went away, replaced by the 460 and 429--"385 series" motors.

 

An early pillow barge motor??/ So was it the Y block or the FE configuration??/ or a engine line different from all the others??/

 

Pillow Barge LOL never heard that before but I like it. Like sitting at home on the living room couch with a bag of chips.

 

It replaced the Y, was similar to the FE, but larger, according to the Wiki story. I was trying to get one to run a couple years back, didn't really look too close at it. They are their own line of motors, "MEL".

I supposed "early" is a relative term, as the Mercury Y's were early pillow barge motors as well. Maybe we could quibble about this like people do about SB and BB or putting a SBC in an eary F series.....

 

The only 430 I know was in Lincoln ( Pillow Barge ), they may have put them in Tbirds. Plenty of horses and lots of torque. They are a design of their own, A friend put one in a 57 Ford custom mated to a 4 speed and it hauled ***..

 

Had a 4500 lbs. 58 Edsel with a 410. Would haul pretty well but the weight and 2.73 gears would cause the transmission, u-joints and motor mounts to hemorrhage on a regular basis.

 

if it's a stock bore and stroke it's a stock lincoln engine and if I remember correctly an fe crank, 427 will fit it. Forget what the final displacement ended up.

 

Wiki (??of course) says 2.9" mains and 2.6" rods. FE bore spacing is 4.63", MEL spacing is 4.90. So no, the 427 (or any FE) crank isn't going to work. 430s were 4.30 bore x 3.70 stroke, so the 3.78 FE crank--if it would fit--would give you a 439. The 462 was 4.38 x 3.83, so no advantage there. The main and rod journals are miles off as well.

Everything and more you might want to know about the MEL, including some dragster pics, and factory 3x2 carb pics.

www.ford-mel-engine.com The MEL Engine Forum 383, 410, 430, 462 cid • View forum - MEL Engine Basic Specifications

 

Guess my memory did fail me.

 

14 seconds in a tank like this. I remember my aunt and uncle had a '50s--I want to say '58 because the one in the video sure rings a bell, color and all. Anyway, no power steering. Couldn't give it away it seemed.

Watch 1958 Mercury 430 6V | Rumble-Vid Episodes | Sports & Cars Videos | Blip

 

i've got a friend who has a 430 in a '62 Lincoln Continental.
suicide doors...mmmm...
for as big as that car is...it will flat-out MOVE.