Without boring you guys to death, my Uncle was telling me about a 58 Mercury that he used to see on the roads back in the mid 60s, he said it had a "Super Marauder" Lincoln engine in it and that it was one of the faster cars around. So I figure we're talking about an MEL 430. He remembers that the guy bought it cheap around 64 or so off a used car lot, dropped a motor out of a wrecked 59 or so Lincoln in it and ordered this setup from the dealer, supposedly it was a 400hp setup. I have been searching the board and can't find much unless I'm doing something wrong. My Uncle said he remembered that it involved a tri-power or dual quad setup and was otherwise a relatively stock engine. Anyone know more about this? A huge ass Black Continental sedan with 400hp might be fun to play with
the super marauder was a mercury only option. it had a cast iron tri-power manifold, google search MEL, there is a pretty good MEL only website.
The 430 was used from 1958 to 65 in Lincoln Continentals, '58 to '60 Mercury's, and '59 and '60 T-Birds. I believe the tri-power 400 Hp Super Marauder was a '58 Mercury only option. By '59 it was derated to 375 hp. The 430 used in Lincolns was rated around 345 Hp and had a single 4 barrel. The torque of the 430 is were it earned its reputation. Most were rated at 475 ft-lbs.
Resurrecting a year old thread to add some archival info for future reference. Super Marauder was a one year only option on 1958 Merc's on the 430 MEL engine only and was available in all models. It may not have been mentioned in any dealer brochures. Contrary to what was stated above, the manifold is aluminum, not cast iron. It was the first use of Holley 2300 2 bbl's on a tri-power set up. It was the first production Detroit iron to hit 400 HP and remained the HP king of the 1950's. The fuel injected 1958 Chrysler 300D's "only" had 390 HP. The manifolds were cast by Moon Equipment according to Wikipedia and I will try to verify that over the next couple of weeks. The secondaries ran vacuum pots similar to early Corvette tri powers. With the exception of the Moon information, all these facts have been verified by me in order to post an auction I currently have on eBay. BTW, that's not a plug because I don't think there's going to be an army on the HAMB ready to buy MEL parts. Here's a few pictures. Notice the similarities and dissimilarities to an FE manifold. The modification to run 2 bbl Rochester 2G's was done by a previous owner. From the factory they were only drilled for 2300's.
Is there any difference in a mercury 430 super marauder and a stock lincoln 430 MEI besides the mercury has tripower and the lincoln has a four barrel?
The automatic transmissions were beefed up on factory-built Mercury Super Marauders (i.e. true J-code cars). Early on, there were plans to run a different cam in the Super Marauder but that was later nixed. The factory never officially built Lincoln Super Marauders even though a similar J-code program was rumored to be in the works, but tripower kits were nonetheless available from the dealer for both Mercury and Lincoln. The two kits differed slightly but not in performance: the air breathers were different and the Merc application used a vacuum cut-out switch on the starter because of the pushbutton transmission (prevented accidental starter engagement when the engine was running). The Linc did not use a pushbutton tranny. The stock Merc 430 also used ramhorn exhaust manifolds whereas the Linc used logs and the Linc was rated slightly higher than the Merc (375HP vs. 360HP if my recollection is correct) although some have argued that was an advertizing gimmick perpetrated by Lincoln. It's my belief that the dealer tripower kits were made available to liquidate pre-production inventory after the super marauder program was cancelled.
Just a quick note regarding the MEL engine...I am currently building two 462 Lincoln engines...one will have an offset ground stock crank, about 510ci, Harland Sharp rocker setup, Slover's heads, Diamond pistons, Slover's 460 manifold adapters to run a tunnel ram. If anyone knows where i could get a roller cam blank, please let me know. BTW, I am also working on using a 385 series (429-460) crank in a MEL 462 block...hoping for 550ci+ if it all works. If anyone has a pair of the big port big valve 1958 MEL heads, would be interested in those as well. Thanks, SJP
San Diego Police Department had a fleet of these special order cars as "Pursuit Freeway Flyers." Their domain was Hwy 101, Hwy 395 and Hwy 80 (Mission Valley Road) and their history was one that influenced the California Highway patrol to order some also. One of those City PD cars exists and is restored in an Auto Museum in San Diego. Normbc9