Видео

Thank you! I still have no car for this engine, and I only start it about once a year so it had only very little running time since the rebuild. So I can't say if the cam will last for long. Sorry for your bad experience, I hope mine wont wore out that fast.

At this point I’m not blaming the camshaft it may turn out to be my fault or maybe the lifters were made of poor materials. My son and I are going to pull the camshaft out tomorrow. I will look it over and try to determine what the heck happened. I’m not a master mechanic or anything but I have done several camshaft swaps and haven’t had this happen before. As you know we don’t have many options especially the early MEL motors with the early style cam bearings and timing components. I’m actually hoping I screwed this up so I can try another Falcon cam. I’ll let you know.

​@@classicv8fan872The 430 MEL V8 would be a great swap for a 1960 Mercury Comet 2-door or a Falcon Ranchero.

@@CJColvin An early ranchero with that mill...awesome!

@@gordocarbo Agreed

It has 3 Holley 2300 2-barrel carbs. The center one is stamped "12331", the outer ones "12334".

@@classicv8fan872 thank you so much. Hopefully they will work for mine

There where several engines available in 1959 Mercurys, and the largest of them was indeed a 7.0 litre V8. To check which one is in the car you are looking at, look at the cars VIN code. The first digit refers to the engine. "P" is for the basic 312 C.I. (5.1 litre) 2-barrel Ford Y-block engine rated at 210 HP, "N" is a 383 C.I. (6.3 litre) 2-barrel MEL engine rated at 280 HP, "M" is a 383 C.I. (6.3 litre) 4-barrel MEL engine rated at 322 HP, and finally "L" is a 430 C.I. (7.0 litre) 4-barrel MEL engine rated at 345 HP.

There's also an unmistakable visual difference, between the M.E.L. engine and the others

I dont know about the crank beeing drilled for a pilot bushing or not. I also dont know about the flywheel, but I can tell yout that FE bellhousings and transmissions do fit the 1958 - 1960 MEL engines. Maybe you can see more on one of the pictures I made during the rebuild process. You can check them out on 3 pages here: ford-mel-engine.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=1598

Look at the cars VIN Code. If the fifth digit is "Y" its a 352 FE engine, if its "J" its a 430 MEL engine. Or just look at the valve covers. The 352s have the word "FORD" or "THUNDERBIRD" embossed into them, the 430s are plain and have nothing embossed.

Fuel economy was pretty much nonexistent. They average less MPG than a modern VAN.

@@SerPurple51 , I think you're right about the problem with fuel economy and that the easiest way to fix it was to do a complete redesign. I'll speculate that excess emissions were also a difficult problem. Both the MEL and the Chevrolet `348 (later 409) came out in 1958 and had similar flat faced cylinder heads. GM pulled the plug on the 409 in 1964 and Ford ended the MEL in 68. The Ford 429/460 replaced the MEL and the Chevy 396/454 replaced the 409. In each case, the replacement engines retained the bore centerlines so much of the old tooling could continue on.

​@@21stcenturyfossil7 I still remember getting 6mpg in my 1968 Plymouth Roadrunner with a 440 6-pack! When gas jumped up to 60-cents (78/79??) I decided to sell it. I was only 17/18 and couldn't afford it while both working and starting college.

@@Matt_from_Florida If you would have glued an egg onto your gas pedal, you would have gotten way more than 6 miles to those gallons, if you didn't crack that egg 😉

Right and not to mention that this engine had wayyyyyyy more potential as well, the Turner of this engine wanted to put a hotter cam, port and polish the factory cylinder heads, and add shorty headers to match with that 6 barrel intake manifold and man it would've made at least 450 HP to 500 HP depending on the timing, could've put in the 1960 2-door Mercury Comet and create they're very own muscle car (beating out the 64 Pontiac GTO as the first muscle car).

59 Bird had a 430 optional. Tri-Power with 400hp or more would be powerful in it

My dad had a 59 galaxie with the 292. Hed get 25mpg in it. These old cars were alot better then people give em credit for anymore.

Had Mercury let they're tuner add a cam, port and polished the factory cylinder heads, and add tubular shorty headers to match that 6 barrel carb intake manifold it would've made atleast 450 HP and could've been the first muscle with an engine that makes 450 HP in 1958 and that 450 HP 430 MEL V8 would've been a really great swap for a 2-door 60 Mercury Comet and that would've easily made it the first muscle car and produced 450 HP as well (beating out the 64 Pontiac GTO by a longshot).

Your grandpa had impeccable taste! That T-bird would have hauled major ass... I'd have watched the corners though. The Ford MEL engine was almost as heavy as the 426 Hemi Elephant. Thanks for sharing.