A 59 Edsel should have a 361 or a 352, shouldn't it?  (Or perhaps a six... I
have a '58 Pacer, so I'm not all that completely up on 59s)

Could be.  Some '59s are cheap, some aren't.  The Ranger was the bottom of the
line, and the most available, so it's going to be cheaper.

Do you want to travel 4 hours and find out you're getting a great deal for the
price?

I drove 24hrs straight just to see MY Edsel, then drove it home (1400 miles)
over two days, because it was a great car for the price, which was $6000.

Sometimes you need to take those chances.  Check the floors when you go, since
that's always a popular rust spot on Edsels.  Run the car a while, get it hot,
see if it smokes.  See if it leaks once hot, or see if the tranny slips when
it's warmed up.  Check the brakes carefully... don't want a surprise there.

If it runs well (engine, tranny, rear end) and the body's not a complete rust
spot, then I'd say go for it.

There's a couple things against Edsel owners... each year is a different car.
Not one single production year looks like the other, and the line was only
made for 3 years, 1958 thru 1960.  That said, I haven't had a problem finding
parts for my 1958.  A lot of Ford parts will fit the car, and 59's seem to be
the most found models.  (though most people think of the 1958 models when they
think Edsel.)

~~R.Banks

This might give you some calibration and answer some of your other
questions:
http://www.edsel.com/pages/for_sale.htm

The abovementioned page says that the smaller of their two engines was
designated E-400, after its foot-pounding torque.    Displacement in
cubic inches was 361.

This of course assumes that it's the original Edsel engine, not the
much later M-Block (which if properly built wouldn't be a bad choice
for such a car if you were going to do a swap):
http://home.earthlink.net/~bubbaf250/index.html

These generations of engines look a lot different, and someone
swapping in a 70s-80s engine would probably bring the C-6 tranny with
it, so you should be able to tell.

If it is a 400 M-block, you then get the further exercise of figuring
out whether they did a really sweet high-caliber swap or just made a
backyard Frankenstein.

Best of luck,
--Joe