Ford’s Forgotten Big Block: The 1958-68 MEL V8

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Ford’s MEL V8 might not have a famous racing record, but it’s worthy of a closer look.

 

The Ford Motor Company had a plenty on its plate for the 1958 model year. First, there was the rollout of an entire new car division, the ambitious but unfortunate Edsel. Next, there were two distinct new passenger-car V8 engine families heading into production, the FE series and the MEL series. (There was a new SD truck V8, too.) The FE (short for Ford-Edsel) went on to glory at Daytona, Le Mans, and elsewhere, while the MEL V8 (Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln) is largely forgotten today. But that doesn’t mean the MEL isn’t an interesting engine and worthy of a closer look.

Between 1958 and 1968, the MEL V8 was produced in four displacements: 383, 410, 430, and 462 cubic inches. All were built on the same basic architecture with 4.90-inch bore spacing, and they all shared the unusual design feature shown above. There were no combustion chambers in the cylinder head. Instead, the block deck was machined at a 10-degree angle, forming a wedge-shaped combustion space in the top of the cylinder bore. This unusual construction, engineered in part to provide manufacturing flexibility, was a Motor City fad of the late ’50s that was also found in the Chevrolet 348/409 V8 (read our feature on the 409 here) and Ford’s SD series large-displacement gasoline truck engines. While the MEL V8 resembles the big SD V8 in some aspects, it shares no major components with the SD, the FE, or any other FoMoCo engines—it’s a lone ranger. Applications for the MEL V8s break down as follows:

+   383 CID: 4.30-in x 3.30-in bore and stroke, used by Mercury in 1958-60

+   410 CID: 4.20-in x 3.70 bore and stroke, used in 1958 Edsel Corsair and Citation. Marketed as the E-475 V8 in accordance with its 475 lb-ft torque rating.

+   430 CID: 4.30-in x 3.70-in bore and stroke, used in 1958-60 Mercury, 1959-60 Ford Thunderbird, and 1958-65 Lincoln.

+   462 CID: 4.38-in x 3.83-in bore and stroke, used by Lincoln from 1966 to 1968, when it was replaced by the 460 CID V8 from the Ford 385 engine family and the MEL series was discontinued for good. The MEL and 385 engine families share 4.90-inch bore centers, suggesting that the 385 was designed to run on the MEL’s tooling.

As  we’ve seen, Ford wasn’t afraid to try new things in this period. For example, check out the elaborate engine shroud with thermostatic air intake shown above left on an Edsel E-400 V8 (361 CID, FE series). While a press photo was released, it doesn’t seem the remarkably modern-looking engine cover ever made it into production. (We haven’t seen one, anyway.) However, we can see that the production Edsel engines (410 CID E-475, above right) did use thermostatic air control, ducting exhaust heat into the air cleaner housing. Another novel feature was the power steering hydraulic pump, which mounted on the timing cover on some versions and was driven directly from the crankshaft.

Despite its multiple virtues, the MEL V8 never gained a foothold in the high-performance world. Its exploits in racing were few but noteworthy: Johnny Beauchamp’s 430-powered ’59 Thunderbird nearly won the 1959 Daytona 500 in the famous photo finish with Lee Petty, while the team of Rodney Singer and Karol Miller took Top Eliminator honors at the NHRA Nationals in Detroit in 1959 with their Lincoln-powered dragster.

Among production MEL V8s, the ultimate in looks and muscle might well be the 1958 Mercury Super Marauder, a special package with three two-barrel Holley carburetors and a fabulously styled cast-aluminum air cleaner assembly (below). With 400 hp at 5200 rpm and 480 lb-ft of torque at 3200 rpm, the 430 CID beast is easily among the most powerful engines offered by the Motor City in the ’50s.

 

10 thoughts on “Ford’s Forgotten Big Block: The 1958-68 MEL V8”

  1. The MEL was definitely the red-headed step child. I never heard anything bad about it, just like what was said here. I never worked on one of these but I worked on the W-Chevy. Kind of tricky getting the pistons in without breaking rings.

    • I’ve never thought about the compatibility of the MEL and Chevy 348/409 with the standard ring compressors. There must have been a special design for use with these engines.

        • Sometimes donated a little blood to the cause. But you could make a standard compressor work with a little flattening out of a couple the blocks. Just take your time…

  3. My knowledge of these engines is that they are really heavy and that’s why they never caught on as hot rod engines.. That isn’t something that I have first hand. My dad had a 67 Lincoln with a 462. I recall it moved that barge with authority.

  5. It is fairly recently that I learnt a little about the existence of these engines. I have seen a few without realising with 60s Lincolns with the bonnet open.
    The Jon Kaase Engine Masters is where I really ever heard of them.
    But why make an engine so hard to assemble? That I have learnt with this story.
    409 Chevs were similar and I know they are very hard to fit the pistons,, a friend had the job of doing one recently.
    I think both Ford and GM were trying to reinvent engines.
    Though many pommy Fords had chamber in piston but at least the deck was square!

  6. My 65 Lincoln had a 430 and it would bury the speedo. Really dependable, and never had an issue with it.

  7. whatever happened to the v6 and v12 international truck engines in the late ’50s?

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