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Hello guys.
Is there anyone on here that knows anything about the 430 MEL engines???

I have a 1960 Mercury Park Lane and it is running like a dog, I have a few idea's but don’t have any tuning spec or details at all for it.
The original 2 barrel carb is completely sha?? (broken) so I have tried putting a 4 barrel Holley 600 on with a 2 to 4 barrel converter plate but she’s not happy, next I tried the Speed Demon I am putting on the 500 Caddy lump going into the 59 Impala. but still no good I am now looking for a working 2 barrel to put back on but also need to give her a full service with new points, leads, plugs and what not. The other thing I am a bit dubious about is the lifters, But until I can find a gasket set for the engine I am not going to open it up. Apart from that the car is really nice and deserves to be on the road.

I was initially going to use a 430 in my last project, just to be different. I got the motor all torn down and mated the block to a Lakewood scattershield, bought a toploader and the whole business. (The motor has a FE bellhousing pattern). Then, when I started looking for hot rod parts for the motor, there was nothing to be had that I could afford. After researching it some more, I sold the motor to a rebuilder and bought a 429 for the project. It's going to be hard to get that motor to run properly on today's pump fuels. It was built when high octane gas was cheap and had tetraethyl lead in it to protect the valve/valve seat interface. The other wierd thing about the motor is that the combustion chamber is in the cylinder. This is achieved by producing a piston with a wedge angle on one side. The underside of the cylinder head is flat, much like the 348/409 Chevy heads. The chamber is huge and is detonation prone.

I'm not saying you can't make it work, but just be aware that there are some issues with this 50-plus year old design.

By the way, the later 462 is the same motor with a longer stroke. It was used primarily in the big Lincolns from about '65 to '67, just before the introduction of the 428 and 429.

Thanks for the info techinspector1.
The other option I have then is maybe get hold of a modern engine and gearbox combo (429 or 460 + C6) and try to get them to fit into the car. If I can get the 500 Caddy lump in and working in the Impala, the Mercury swap should not be to much of a problem???