MEL 462 engine

Anyone know much about these engines? The pros and cons? Found one for sale. Seems cool to have the 460's older brother.

They are the first BB Ford engine to have a 4.900" bore spacing. The smaller versions of the engine were a 383 CID and the 430 CID. There is not much speed equipment for them,,,so? Also, the design of the engine has the combustion chamber space/volume actually in the cylinder ala' 348 and 409 Chevys. because the deck is not cut square to the cylinder bore centerline. At the end of the day, they may only be worth something to somebody restoring an old Lincoln.

Charlie

http://www.mercury-edsel-lincoln.com/

http://ford-mel-engine.com/index.php?sid=6acb47b550fb1a5fcb9a2f6537e11459

Found this during a search.

What is the firing order on them? I had a 462 back in the day but don't remember it
All I remember is it was so smooth you couldn't tell it was running unless you looked at the fan.

Actualy a pretty good motor, they did have a decent hot rod following in the 60's from my understanding, kinda like Buick Nial heads and such. They just got pushed to the side because better things came about 427's and 429's a little later.

Definetly great Rat Rod or Street Rod engines.

I like to put them in Edsels. They have lots of low low end torque, off idle torque.

My brother and I have been playing with these since the mid 1970's. The MEL web site has a great wealth of knowledge & parts for these engines, and you will be surprised to find quite a bit of speed parts available from the 60's still floating around for these engines. Because of recent interest finned aluminium valve covers went back into production, and valley pans are said to be next. Mallory makes dizzys and many cam companies have old stock, or can regrind cores. Ross has forged pistons available through special order. The Factory "Super Marauder" 3x2 intake is the most sought after item, and those and Edelbrocks version often come up for sale on that site. Edelbrock 6x2's are found often as well. The real problem with using a 462 engine is Lincoln used a unique bellhousing bolt pattern on the block, only the factory case c-6 for a 462 will fit. This was done to make room for the ac system on Lincolns. The same problem comes up for 430's produced after 1960. From 1958 to 1960 383 & 430 And 410 Edsel's used the common FE pattern. That's why the "Holman & Moody" Thunderbirds using 430's in NASCAR ran manual transmissions, the pattern was common. LIncoln changed all that in 1961 moving the starter position around to fit the Lincoln chassis, as the MEL engines are a very wide Y block design. So if you want to hot rod one, your best bet is to use a 1958-1960 430 block & install your 462 crankshaft into that. You will loose some cubes because of bore difference , but will still be around 451 cid, and have a wealth of trans possibilities. This has been the set up of choice for hot rodding these engines lately. One interesting note, there's a manufacturer that makes adapters to use 429-460 Ford intake manifolds on these engines, my brother bought a set, you can use pretty much any intake, but you have to slightly machine the 460 manifold around where the 430 dizzy drops in for clearance.