Just to put more mud in the water, I thought that “FE” stood for “Fairlane Edsel” the models for which the engines were being designed.
I believe the original passenger car OHV Ford V8s were the 130 Hp 239 cu in in the Ford and 161 HP 256 cu in in the Mercury introduced in 1954. Some folks around here did not feel that these engines were the high point in Ford engineering. Lincoln may have had its first OHV engine, a 317 in 1952. I think the 317 engine was used in some Ford trucks too.
Oh, by the way, I was in college before I learned that D###d and Yankee were two separate words.
Rick