Projects After 6 months, they are finally here

Not your everyday day build here. 410 Edsel MEL engine. Been waiting on pistons since May from wiesco. To their knowledge they have never made any 410 pistons. Some 430s. Maybe only a couple thousand of these old engines left. The 410 only came in the big body Edsel Corsair and citation. Their is after market knock offs but they are flat tops. Kills the compression. The 410 is a wedge motor.


Some still confuse the 410 with the late 60s FE. They are not the same engine at all. 410 was a one year, 1958 only engine. Tenth smaller bore than the 430 engines.

 

Pics as you progress please.

 

Always good to see another MEL going together. Never the easy way out, but cool. Keep us in the loop during the build, please.

 

Nice!

 

They are expensive to build. But I would just blow the money on something else. Heavy torque monsters. Block is off to get bored.

 

You only got 8? Last time I called they would only do 50!

 

they made just 8 for me. It was almost 1500 for them and rings, but they did it. And gave me 2 free stickers lol

 

No, they gave you 8 regularly priced pistons with some very expensive stickers. Display them wisely!!!

 

Wow.


What's not to like, and I did. I liked it. The picture, the shine of freshly cut aluminum.
I even checked out the web site. Pretty cool stuff.
I'm not saying I'm sold on a $700 dollar set of SBC pistons or would cut the bigger $1500 cheque you did, but that's a quality looking slug.
I'm no piston expert, I'm a believer in technology and modern manufacturing. What you need to do is show the rest of the assembly. A couple more angles on that piston.

 

I’ll update, with pics along the way. I also love the look of brand new pistons. Once bore is done it shouldn’t take long. Crank is polished and checked, heads already built, water pump sent out for rebuid, Harmonic balancer sent out and rebuilt, can’t buy anything over the counter for these engines. But at car shows it isn’t your normal sbc under the hood.

factory stated 475 lbs of torque. That’s why the valve covers on edsels was stamped e475. From what I can find it’s probably more like 425.

 

To put that price in perspective, a friend had one broken piston in a late model German car and the only source for a new one, the dealer, wanted $600+ for it. And it's ugly.

Those MEL pistons are real nice.

 

Those pistons really are a thing of beauty, it's a shame to hide them in your MEL. Real eye candy there.

 

im sure when it’s time to bolt the heads on, I’ll stare at them for 30 minutes. Then think after one crank and fire the carbon will take over.

 

Well you've got some nice pictures. In the old days we usually didn't take pictures of engine parts and assembly. Film was expensive.

 

Over the years building cars, I've come to realize that once you are out driving the car that YOU wanted, time and money spent are soon forgotten. Good luck with your build and enjoy every minute of it. Nice looking pistons, hope they perform to your expectations.

 

Definitely some specially configured pistons right there.

Beep would be proud of you.

What are you putting the 410 into?

 

I’m sure they will. And I agree. Money will be forgotten about as soon as she comes alive.

 

going into my sons 58 Edsel. His first car. He enjoys working and learning on these old cars. So I figured I better support that and keep him out of trouble.

 

I have wondered if there was a generic line of pistons somewhere. List the sizes in a catalog system, bore, skirt style, pin height, etc. Just a thought.

 

I had to mail them two pistons. So they could copy them.

 

Did you see that guy in Jacksonville on Texas Country Reporter that had all the Edsels?

 

The uniqueness is at the top of the piston, due to the fact that the heads are milled flat with no combustion chamber. The wedge-shaped combustion chamber is accomplished by simply milling the block at a 10° angle.
This necessitates machining the top of the piston as shown in the picture posted.
There are "generic" flat top pistons available, but they cause a loss of compression and don't take best advantage of the early swirl technology for a good burn.
Looks like Dustin found a way ($) to convince Weisco to make them correctly.
Awesome that you're supporting your son in this. If he likes it, I'd say it's more than worth it.
Good luck to you both!

 

Those are powerful engines.
Explain to your son that he will be buying any replacement rear tires.
Hahahahahahahahaha!

 

I did not. But I’ll try and find it. Thanks

 

yes for sure. Lol. But with all the talk about Coker tires being out of round on this site, maybe it’ll help make them round.

and you are correct on the “swirl” they call it in the quench area at the top.

 

Short block is finally done. Machine shop sent this to me tonight

 

Look at all the meat on that deck…

 

Man thats a lot of piston above the pin..

 

Just like a 409 chevy. We had a 58 bermuda 9 pass wagon with the 361 (E400) and it was a runner. Lippy