FE stands for "Ford-Edsel" and it was Ford's first car big-block engine which debuted for the 1958 model-year. It was built in 332, 352, 361 (Edsel, recycled later as a Ford truck "360" V8), 390, 427 and 428 cubic inch displacements from the factory. MEL was "Mercury-Edsel-Lincoln" and this was the "very-big-block" engine which debuted as a 383 (Mercury), 410 (Edsel), 430 (Mercury and Lincoln) then later 462 (Lincoln only) engines. It also debuted for the 1958 model year and was built through 1966. It was in concept much like the Chevy 348/409 in that the block faces were canted, the pistons had an inverted "vee" shape and the heads were totally flat at the combustion chambers. In other words, the combustion chambers were in the cylinder bores with the pistons. The 1960 Thunderbird could be had with an MEL 430 V8 which made its handling rather um, cumbersome! It was a very heavy engine. I think the FE was built through the 1970's for trucks, so that "Edsel" engine had a long life. FE powered Edsels were the lower priced Ford-platform Ranger and Pacer in 1958, and MEL powered Edsels were the higher priced Mercury-platform Corsair and Citation in 1958. After the 1958 cars, all Edsels had FE engines and were Ford platform based cars, and the 1960 car was a lightly disguised Ford much as the Canada market Ford-based Meteor.
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