Florida Phil;..re the 302 in a  50's Ford.. I agree with U, but it's even worse, when I see an SBC under the hood, I just walk away or I might get into a confrontation... 


Paul

I agree.  I hate it when I see a nice old Ford with a SBC under the hood. I've had my share of GM engines both big and small.  Raced one for years.  They're the cheapest way to go fast.   They don't belong in Fords.

While the GM ‘W’ series engines (348/409) were machined with 14° decks, the M-E-L engines (383/410/430/462) have decks machined on a 10° angle.  Both these engine families require specific plates bolted to the decks that will permit a deck mounted boring bar to be used.  Here is what that plate looks like for the M-E-L engines.
 

 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

Never knew that, leave it to Ted to have the block plate.  What do the pistons look like, do they have a similar slant on top??

Looks like ti has the "Steam holes" drilled Lol

these look hardly ever used.did you come across them at a swap meet or something or did you always have them.i wonder what they cost back in the day.

I’ve had those MEL block boring plates for a good number of years now.  They have been used several times but are cleaned after each use and put in their wooden cases which helps to explain why they still look good.  These originally came from a machine shop that was shutting down.  Hard to say what they cost new back then but would definitely be pricey today based on what torque plates now cost.


While the aftermarket MEL pistons maintain a zero deck at the upper portion of the piston, the spark plug side of the piston is where the compression ratio can be tailored specifically to the application.  The valve pockets do limit what can be done with the compression ratio if running high lift cams.  Here are some pictures.
 
410 M-E-L – Edsel street engine for pump gasoline
 


 
371 CID M-E-L for Bonneville C/AIR class using racing fuel
 
 
550 CID M-E-L using racing fuel
 

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)