Years ago I bolted a 1960 Merc 430 MEL motor into a 57 Ford convertible using a 1961 Galaxie 352 bellhousing and flywheel and 3 speed T85 OD trans. The engine mount provisions on the block appear to still be a bolt-in for other Y-block or FE-equipped Fords from late fifties and early sixties going forward, even with the change to 462 displacement. However, it appears that the block to bellhousing bolt pattern was changed in (probably 1961) and so to use a '61 or later motor would require you to also use the later transmission that came with the MEL motor, or another tranny with the same odd engine-to-bellhousing mount pattern (but, I have yet to find anything else that has that odd bolt pattern - and I think I have most every Ford bellhousing size laying around). Neither a BBF (429-460), nor an FE bellhousing appears to fit on the later (61-67)MEL motors and so it does not appear that it is possible to use a manual transmission at all on the 61 and later motors (unless someone knows of a stick-equipped 61-67 Lincoln, I don't think that was ever made...). I have a 1967 MEL 462 and it definitely will not accept either the FE or 385 series (429-460) bellhousing pattern. I am picking up a 1965 430 that I also bought just to convince myself that only the 58-60 MEL's were easy swaps. I have played with the idea of using the '67 462 in a 56 Merc I have, but only way to get a transmission behind it appears to be using the front part of the original C6 and have the shorter tailhousing and 31 spline output shaft of the typical later C6 used to replace the odd duck tailhousing and CV joint(?)output shaft that the '67 Lincoln C6 had. Also not sure if later exhaust manifolds would fit in the 50's chassis though the '60 manifolds did. Mike H
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