If anyone has an official publicaton from the MEL Division of Ford Motor Company that reflects a 312 hp 383 I'd sure like to know its publication date. I have every official manual published by the MEL Division in 1957 and 1958 covering '58 Mercs and Lincolns along with about a foot high stack of service bulletins that cover 383 and 430 MEL engines and engine specifications. Absolutely no where is there even a hint of a reference to a 312 hp version of the 383 engine.
As I said in my original post I am familiar, in fact have two, Motor's Auto Repair Manuals (one dated 1962 and another dated 1965) which indicate a 312 something was put in a '58 Merc. Whatever they were referring to accurately or inaccurately was not a 312 hp MEL block engine.
About the only way a 383 with a 4.300 bore and 3.200 stroke might be reduced by a scant 18 hp to 312 hp would be to change the carburetor to a 2bbl which would make no sense on an engine with 10.5:1 compression (yeah, I know in some references the compression for a 383 is shown to be 10.0:1). Not even the MEL Division could make up its mind on the published compression of a 383 for the few years it was produced.
No 2bbl was ever placed on any MEL block used in a '58 Mercury. They all got a Holley List #1849 4bbl, single metering block and power valve, and vacuum secondary; identified by Ford as Ford type 4150, a generic sort of thing with Ford identifying certain types of 4bbl carbs. First those made by Holley and in more recent years even Autolite and Motorcraft 4bbl carbs got the 4150 designation.
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