Fordamatic Block Plate

[41Fordor]

Did the 54 air cooled Fordamatic have a block plate between the bell housing and engine block? It was ten years between teardown and reassembly.

I've searched my parts bins and can't find the lower access plate for the front of the torque converter. I have the small lower access plate with two bolts.

Its already mated to the engine and installed...starts and runs fine. I just want to seal up the front opening since I'm sure its necessary to cool properly. Yeah, I'm an idiot haha.

 

[dmsfrr]

This air cooled Fordomatic in a '55 has a partial circle sheet-metal cover on just the lower front portion of the bell housing. Nothing in-between the block & bell housing.

'54 Y-blocks had some one-year-only parts but I don't believe they had a large shim/spacer plate between the block & bell housing. FWIW, this car had a '54 engine in it that was removed and replaced with a '55.
.

 

[GLAmes]

By block plate do you mean a cover plate?

 

[41Fordor]

Yeah, just that lower cover plate. I can probably fab one, I was just hoping I wasn't damaging the torque converter or input shaft thrust bearing or anything. I swapped a 57 292 for the original 239 and everything bolted right up.

 

[rotorwrench]

The cover plate was more of a debris cover than anything. It did likely allow for better cross ventalation per the intended air flow path. It was only a year or so before they started using an oil cooler set up.

The 1P series were mostly flathead types so 1954 was the first of the Y-block types but all they did was change the bell housing for most of them since the 54 Ford still used the 1P type. The Mercury with the larger engine got the PAE series that was a bit heavier duty but not by much. The medium case types came out in 1956 for the 312 and the new larger engines. There weren't a lot of changes till the Cruise-O-matic dual range transmissions came out in 1958. They still made single range small case Ford-O-Matics for light duty applications for quite a while.

 

[41Fordor]

Thanks, I live on gravel roads so I'll make a cover.

Funny story, I bought the car from the automatic transmission instructor at Denver Auto and Diesel College. So I assumed it was good, Its the only MX I have that doesn't leak. Not a drop.

Wife's 65 TBird needs a drip pan, both my 69 Fords with FMX's leak all over the exhaust. First startup in the spring looks like a grass fire.

 

[miker98038]

Worries me. No leaks. All the oil gone?

Just joking.

 

[rotorwrench]

I learned a lot on my first car (a 1964 T-Bird) since it was the first Cruise-O-Matic I ever overhauled. I learned a lot about what not to do on that car. It had to be fully warmed up for the transmission to shift right but it was smooth as glass after that and it didn't leak. The Ford-Borg Warner designs definitely weren't perfect and had their quirks but actually very reliable as long as they were operated normally. They were vulnerable to damage when an operator got stuck in mud and started rocking a heavy car to get out. A lot of failures happened that way. The cast iron case can crack and the metal on metal friction packs can get destroyed if they ever started to slip. This was the reason that the type F fluid was developed in the 60s. The design eventually developed into the AOD transmission which is still around and working better than the older designs to some degree.