As those who used to race them always knew, the MEL: Mercury 383, Edsel 410 and Lincoln 430/462, was a torque monster. However, as we all found out, the oiling system would not support high rpm or extended hardships. This tech article is about how my dad and I learned, over many years and through the wasting of many a crankshaft, how to make a MEL live, even under the stress of nitro. When it comes to MEL engines, especially the early ones (58 to 61) and also with the later ones to a lesser extent, precision machining wasn't Fords watchword. There were many core shift problems, cam walk issues, major valve train problems and worst of all, poor and insufficient flow of oil to the main and rod bearings at many rpm's. I will discuss each below in more detail as to what to watch for and how to correct it. 1) Core shift (thin cylinder walls). Ford had a terrible time with the early 58 & 59 version of the MEL block. Although the blocks were designed to have massive wall thickness with the intent for them to be bored, the workmanship at the Lima plant was poor and core shift caused many of the blocks to be very thin in places. All the early blocks should be checked for wall thickness before using. If all cylinders are good and basically have the same wall thickness, then bore away up to .125 without looking back and out to .150 with care. We bored some out to .175 over and used hardblock to fill the water jacket 2/3rds the way up for strength. This worked good unblown or blown on gas. However a good dose of nitro had no problem pushing these thin walls around so we would go out only .90 or so on the fuel engines. 2) Cam walk. The early MEL's, as with their cousins the early FE's had a cam walk problem, especially when using roller lifters. The 58 through 60 blocks all had camshafts with the same size journals form the front to the back. The later MEL's, 61 through their eventual demise, had camshafts with journals of different sizes. The # 1 journal being the largest and # 2 slightly smaller follwed by the remaining three each a trifle smaller than the last one. The last journal was the smallest. This tapered camshaft, along with a newly designed fuel pump eccentric bolted the the front which was also tapered slightly to the rear and caused a back pressure on the cam, stopped all the cam walk. In addition, it made the cam much easier to install. If you have a 58 through 60 block and are using hydraulic or solid lifters you will not likely have much of an issue. However, we made a small spring and button that fit into the hole in the front of the cam spocket (you will have to machine a hole in the fuel pump eccentric to match). This applied a little pressure against the cam towards the rear. This stopped the cam walk altogether, even with roller lifters. 3) Valve Train Problems. The early MEL's (58 to at least 61) had huge valve springs that looked as if they belonged on a catapillar engine. They were designed for very slow speed and were almost worthless. In addition, they had a rotator cup on the exhaust valve that weighed a ton. These springs are absolutley garbage and should be pitched. No one made a stronger spring for these types in the old days. We switched to the FE spring in 1959 and machined the heads to fit. After 61, Ford shifted to the same spring size as the FE engines and that fixed that. The MEL, as with the FE, have a very weak rocker shaft stand. These are made of aluminum and will walk like hell so they have to be replaced with steel. There are one of two ways to do this. Make your own as we did out of block steel or purchase a good set of steel FE ones and cut them down. The MEL stands are about 3/16 shorter than the FE. This will stop the stand from walking around. As one can guess, the MEL push rods are long, very long. A good quality aftermarket set is mandatory. 4) Oiling problems. This is the MAIN ISSUE with the MEL series engine, especially the early versions. As with the core shift issues, MEL engines had poor workmanship in the oiling system holes and canals. Alignment was terrible and must be checked and corrected. ALL, and I mean ALL the 58 and 59 engines were bad and must be checked. Supposedly Ford corrected this problem in 1960, but my 61 was bad and I had to correct it myself. Start your inspection where the oil pump bolts on. Then..... a) Make sure that the pump outlet hole aligns with the hole in the block. If it doesn't, use a porting grinder and notch out the block until it does. Then throw the oil pump away. It is aluminum and is of very poor quality. Buy a good quality HV/HP FE pump. They are the same and will fit perfectly. Then, are you ready for this, drill this hole out 1/8th inch larger than it currently is. Drill all the way to the 90 degree turn where the oil exits the block headed to the filter. b) After making sure you reached the bottom of the first hole, stand the block on it's rear end. Then where the fillter adapter bolts to the front of the block, drill out both of these holes 1/8th inch larger also. Then, drill out to 1/8th inch larger, the hole that runs from the output side of the oil filter up to the center oil channel of the block. You must also enlargen the holes in the oil filter housing. We made an adapter plate here and ran lines to a seperate double filter unit. c) Now that you have all the holes larger from the pump up to the center oil channel, put the drill down for a while. Take your porting grinder and carefully blend the two holes where they make their 90 degree turns. You will find that orignally Ford did not do well in this alignemnt and only about 1/2 to 1/3 of holes lign up. Blending the holes to meet properly, along with enlarging the holes, you will more than triple the flow capacity of the channels. d) Now that you have completed the first part of the oiling system up grade, pick up the drill agian. You ain't finished with it yet. You will need to purchase three very long drill bits (24") for the next step. One the stock hole size, one 1/16th inch larger than the stock hole size and one 1/8trh inch larger. You will find that Ford drilled the center channel that runs the length of the block from both sides and had the bits meet in the middle. Well guess what? In most cases, especially with the early models, these did not meet very well. Alignment on many was so far off that you had only a 1/4 to 1/2 size passage. This may be OK for stock, slow speed operations, but it won't hang at any rpm at all. The rear bearings will starve. Start by using the stock hole size drill bit and drill all the way from one end to the other. Take your time and use plenty of light oil. Especially when you get to the middle where the hole doesn't line up. What you are doing here is "aligning" the hole. After the stock size drill has passed all the way out, use the next size and do it again, Go slow and use plenty of light oil. Follow up with the next and last size drill (1/8th oversize). Congratulations, you just saved your MEL from oil starvation on main number three through five and the back half of the connecting rod bearings also. e) Now, your getting close to being done. However, there is a couple of other checks to make. There are five oil holes running from the center channel down around the cam bearings to the mains. Take the stock size drill bit and run it down through the main bearing hole, through the cam bearing space all the way into the center oil channel to make double sure there is no missalignemnt with these. This also cleans them out and sizes them up. Now, you can't do this with the rear main oil hole since it makes several 90 degree turns. However, you must run the drill through each short portion to make sure of alignment and to cleam them out. Use you porting grinder to blend these where they meet if needed. f) Main Bearings. You must use a set of main bearings that are grooved for oil passage on the upper half and not on the lower half. This allows for additional oil flow and not effect the support of the crankshaft. In 61 Ford switched to this set up and it helped a lot. However, you cannot use a 61 or later bearing set in a 59 through 60. The later ones have a double lock set up and the older ones do not. They do make bearings for the older ones that are grooved at the top thought and you have to look. g) We talked about the oil pump. Use a good quality HV/HP Ford FE pump. It fits and works great. However, have it set up to run at around 65 pounds when hot. There you have it. How to ake a MEL live at up to 6000 rpm. Good luck and if you have any questions as to MEL's let me know.
This is a post that even people who have never heard of this engine family should read, simply as an excellent lesson in mechanical thinking and problem finding/correction. Damn fine stuff.
Yeah. Pushrods?? WTF?? Had to look THAT up on Wikipedia. Why didn't they just put the valves where the cam is?
this is some cool shit... my pal little_E with his edsel fetish needs to read this science for sure...
Man, this is fried gold! Got a Pacer now with the FE motor, but if I pick up a Corsair or Citation for my next Edsel (and yes there will be more) I'll remember this and revert back to this. Thanks a million!!!
This belongs in HAMB tech. Only thing I'd add is that it might be a really good idea to reduce the journal sizes in order to improve the oiling and bottom end strength. WAY too much weight getting slung around for this type engine to be used as a reliable race engine. Several benefits can be gained by reducing the journal diameter(s), and is semi-common fare among Pontiac, Olds, Ford, and Chrysler racers.
Blown Olds,,,funny that you should mention that. I forgot to mention that we turned down the rod journals by off-set grinding them to get 3/8" stroke out of it. We went down to early Pontiac rod journals size which was larger than the sbc, but not by much. M/T made a special set of rods and pistons with Pony bearings and Chrysler pins. These rods were way lighter than the LM rods and also stronger. We also grooved the main journals to allow 360 degree oiling, but using the grooved upper half main bearing allowed us to stop doing that. Grooving the crank weakened it and we broke a few on nitro.
Ive never seen one of these engines but loved the tech post! Sets the standard for other tech posts for sure! Danny
I don't even own one of these but it has me thinking about the oiling in some of my older engines. Good stuff.
Old thread, with posts from members no longer with us, but I like to see these tech threads brought back up. Any info on MEL and Y-blocks is welcome.
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