A buddy of mine here in Melbourne Australia is a bit of a guru of some standing in the local Mustang club, and acquires odd but interesting stuff from time to time. Amongst his collection of Mustangs, 427SOs and vintage military radios, he came across and bought an odd, old big block Mercury motor & auto trans. It is apparently early sixties vintage and is supposedly 462 cubic inches - but how do you check?. It has the distributor at the front (possibly on an angle) but has heads/inlet manifold like a Cleveland or 429/460 motor rather than like an FE block (where the inlet reaches under the valve covers - and they have an 'M' on them). Reputedly motor & trans were reconditioned for a 'hotrod' project that never eventuated, he acquired it for a criminally low amount, and is hoping to fire it up soon on a stand - I'll make sure I'm available for that!

But, anyone here able to tell us any more about these - performance (or lack thereof), value, rarity, desireability, scrapability?

Anyway, Happy New Year from downunder.

Jeff

.....best bet would be to post some pic or two. Then we might identify the engine rather than speculating.
A MEL engine has its' dostributor in a straight vertical position. Chrysler engines have it mounted in an angle.

Physical desription matches. If it has a large M on the rocker covers, it may be of MERCURY origion. MERC used the 383 and 430 from 1958 to 1960.

Can you give the casting nos. off the right front skirt?