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EFV-8 Club Forum / General Ford Discussion / Identify weird Fordomatic ???

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Posted By Discussion Topic: Identify weird Fordomatic ??? -- page: 1 2     Grant 11-19-2011 @ 5:16 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 537 Joined: Oct 2009 Further to my 01 November 2011 post about the strange exhaust manifold which turned up at the EFV8 flea market in Auburn Indiana last August, another oddball flathead contraption has surfaced in our area (RG149). Attached is a photo of a V8 engine and an early Fordomatic transmission (1953, maybe ?). On the passenger's side, it appears to have a device intended to heat up the transmission fluid (connected to the transmission with two short steel lines). Does anyone know what type of vehicle this would have been used in ? My guess is that it could have been designed to cope with very cold weather conditions in the far north (military? mining? logging?). Looking at the photograph: 1. it's an 8BA engine (49/50/51?) that says Made In Canada on the heads 2. the intake is a Canadian aluminum casting 3. the exhaust manifolds are pickup truck 4. below the crankshaft pulley, out of view, is a large saddle mount with a horizontal base 5. the water pumps are passenger car, not pickup 6. on the passenger's side head, there is no heat gauge sending unit 7. there is a long dipstick tube mounted on the passenger's side of the transmission. Instead of the heat gauge sending unit, a 45 degree elbow is installed at the rear of the right head. It looks like the piece of heater hose running forward from the transmission fluid heater, if that's what the thing is, was connected to the elbow fitting. On the driver's side of the transmission is an oval plate which says: (i) PAD-7003-A (ii) 8-17645 (iii) Dearborn Michigan With respect to the dipstick tube, that looks like a 1953 part to me. Our 1951 and 1952 Fordomatic cars do not have this feature. Their transmission fluid levels cannot be checked until a steel plate has been removed from the floorboards. The Ford of Canada 1949 to 1960 passenger car, and 1948 to 1960 truck, parts catalogs both show several transmission listings for 7003. Number 17645 is non-existent. In the 17600's, the parts are related to windshields and mirrors. Grant 11-19-2011 @ 5:19 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 537 Joined: Oct 2009 Sorry, gentlemen, my first attempt at attaching the photo did not work. supereal 11-19-2011 @ 4:19 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 Almost all automatic transmissions circulate the fluid thru a heat exchanger in the radiator lower tank. This does double duty. It heats the fluid quickly to allow smooth operation, and cools it,I f the fluid temperature rises above the coolant temperature after a trip thru the radiator. Early Fordomatics used air cooling, but it wasn't effective. bonusbuilt1950 11-19-2011 @ 4:47 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 49 Joined: Feb 2011 PAD 7003-A Fordomatic is from a 1953 F-100 Pickup, 239 V8. THe waterpumps are correct for 1953. They did not use the ear for mounting like the earlier years. Barry 50 F-1 This message was edited by bonusbuilt1950 on 11-19-11 @ 4:47 PM Grant 11-20-2011 @ 5:59 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 537 Joined: Oct 2009 Thanks for your input. Another photo is attached (I hope). Supereal: Are you thinking that this rectangular fluid heater/cooler is a stock Ford part ? If so, do you know what the correct Ford Motor Company name might be ? Perhaps it can be located in the factory Parts Catalog. What you are saying makes sense, but I don't understand how hot Prestone at something like 200 degrees F could have much of a cooling effect on transmission fluid. Do you think that running the steel lines all the way forward to a tank at the bottom of the radiator would have resulted in superior transmission fluid cooling and lower transmission fluid temperature ? Bonusbuilt1950 Barry, could this engine and transmission be a bone stock factory set-up that would be correct for an EFV8 restoration of a 1953 Ford pickup ? Our 1952 Ranch Wagon has a very different Fordomatic with a large sheet metal air intake on one side, no steel cooling lines, no heater/cooler for the fluid, and no dipstick tube. Hopefully the second photo did attach, and you can now see a front 3/4 view. Could what we are looking at be a one-year-only Ford engine and transmission set-up which was used exclusively in 1953 Fordomatic trucks ? If so, and someone has bolted on a 49/50/51 8BA engine where a 1953 V8 used to be, what letters or numbers would appear on the heads ? Other members: Does some one out there own a 1953 Ford truck equipped with a Fordomatic like this ? Or a 1953 passenger car, maybe, with the same or a similar heater/cooler for the transmission fluid ? bonusbuilt1950 11-20-2011 @ 7:55 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 49 Joined: Feb 2011 Your tranny is for that year only. The trans code you listed is shown in my Parts catalog for that year only. 54 and later use a slightly different code. Also All the trucks from 48-52 used 8BA heads from the factory. My catalog shows 8RT for late 52-53. The 8RT heads were also used to supercede the 8BA heads . That's a grey area as to which head is correct. Also remember that truck engines were used hard and when they died, users usually just went to the junkyard and grabbed a running engine and put it in. Ford's rewbuilt engines were the same way. Many a 8BA engine was put in different years. As for the trans cooler, that is factory. Part number was PAD 7870-A . It was used on all Fordomatics from 53-55 in all series trucks. We aren't used to seeing coolers back on the tranny. They're usually in the bottom of the radiator or mounted in front of the radiator. I remember back in the early 70's when I started as a parts guy for Ford, I had to get parts for a 53 F-100 Fordomatic. It was interesting. Back then you still could get some of the parts from Ford, no more. Looking at your 2nd pic, that motor has the front mount for the pickup. It's definitely a good candidate for someone restoring a 53 with a Fordomatic. THey're rare now as the percentage of trucks with a automatic trans back then was very small. Barry 50 F-1 This message was edited by bonusbuilt1950 on 11-20-11 @ 7:55 AM bonusbuilt1950 11-20-2011 @ 8:06 AM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 49 Joined: Feb 2011 Also, the trans lines to the front were 1/2 inch. The trans pump probably moved alot of fluid to try to keep it cool. Having a rear cooler showed that the radiator by itself was not enough to cool the fluid. Remember, Ford had just started the year before ( 1952 ) to offer thier own automatic. 53 was still a year where they were still sorting the bugs out. And I think that these units were prone to running hot. What you have there is 100% correct. Barry 50 F-1 supereal 11-20-2011 @ 8:25 AM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 6819 Joined: Oct 2009 Grant: As stated above, cooling was a problem with early Ford-O-Matics. The outboard cooler is similiar to transmission coolers sold today for vehicles with heavy loads, such as pulling a trailer. They are usually installed in the oil line leading to the radiator tank to precool the fluid. Automatic transmissions work best when they are hot, but will destruct if overheated. The coolant temp in the radiator allows the transmission to rise to operating temperature almost as soon as the engine is started. This is particularly important in winter months. The main heat generator is the torque converter. That is why there was an air vent in the housing. I know that running the transmission fluid to and thru a hot radiator seems counter intuitive, but it is standard engineering. Radiator coolant temperature, even under pressure, stays well below the level that would result if no cooling was provided for the fluid. I can't help you with a part number, but aftermarket coolers are readily available. Grant 11-21-2011 @ 6:40 PM reply profile send p.m. Senior Posts: 537 Joined: Oct 2009 Great information. Thanks again. Much appreciated. fordomatic 11-13-2017 @ 2:11 PM reply profile send p.m. Member Posts: 1 Joined: Nov 2017 HI There and Im new to the club.. I have been helping my cousin out with his 53 Ford pick up with a Fordomatic.. I somehow stumbled on an old post here from 2011 and you had a 53 ford engine with an automatic transmission.. The truck my cousin owns has been in his family since 1953 and it was stock with the automatic transmission. It belonged to his grandfather and was used to deliver pasta in San Francisco and he ordered it with an automatic because of all the hills.. I am helping him with it and I wonder if you have a picture of it as Im trying to figure out where the lines go to the cooler on the transmission.. I can't seem to open the old pictures on here ..Thank you so much for any response.. Mark

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