The design lived beyond the FE.  The 3.0L Vulcan V6's that Ford used from 1986 to 2008 also had a similar design.  The Vulcan was a "clean sheet" design, but had a whole bunch of FE similarities.  Of course the FE had only been out of production for a few years when Ford started on the Vulcan V6, so it was likely still fresh in a few of the designers minds.

Since I used the original Cruis-O-matic bellhousing adapted to the AOD pump, it is very similar in size to the original Cruis-O, just a bit longer in the tail section.  I don't know how the Quicktime bell compares to a Cruis-O bell, my guess is they are similar, I never had both out of the cars at the same time to compare.  I used the Quicktime bell in my '76 F-250, and there was all kinds of room in that thing.

My buddy put an AOD behind the 428 in his '64 Marauder.  He used the Bendsten's adaptor plate which is 1 1/2" thick and pushes the entire trans back that much.  His bell was very tight to the firewall, and I think he even cheated the motor forward a bit on the mounts.  Headers were an even bigger problem with the Bendsten's Adaptor, much cutting and massaging was required there. 

Hello,  My name is Adam.  Some of you have seen me on the HAMB, MEL, and other forums.  I have been stalking Jay's FE forum for quite awhile, so figured it was time to actually join. 

I have a 352 powered '62 Mercury Monterey Custom Wagon and a 390 powered '76 F-250 extended cab.   I also have a '51 F-1 street rod with a 351W and 5 speed, a '63 Fairlane 2 door post project, a '60 Ford C600 Chassis Cab with a Lincoln Y-Block, and an '85 F350 quad cab dually with a 6.9 IDI.  So that covers nearly the complete range of Ford products.  At the end of the day, the FE is my favorite, although the MEL is growing on me.

I am currently working on building a 6-71 blown '58 430 MEL to dump into the '51 so the Windsor can get used in the Fairlane. 

The Merc and its 352




The '51

The Quicktime bell is not a "Bolt-In" application by any means.  Just about 2 years ago, I went down this rather twisted road with my 390 powered '76 F-250.  The C6 had taken a crap, and I had a AOD under the bench that I pulled out of my '83 F-150 when I scrapped that truck a few years earlier.  The AOD ran fine when it was pulled, but had sat for some time.  I had done a similar conversion in my '62 Merc Monterey wagon a few years earlier, using a Cruis-O bell and Broader built AOD, and that combo works great and drives wonderfully (cruises all day at 2100 rpms at 70 mph with a 325 Hp 352, 3.6 rear end and 29 in tires).  I figured it wasn't that big of a leap from a 5000 lb fullsize wagon to a 3/4 ton truck and if I did my homework, the AOD should work well and be a fairly cheap conversion.  I was quite wrong.

Yes.  You have to chop the AOD bell off.  Not a big deal for most of us.  Here are the lessons I learned:

Expensive Lesson #1:  The stock 12" convertor does not fit in the Quicktime bell (despite what it says on Holley's and Summits website).  You need a custom convertor, basically an 11" (or smaller) "C6" style unit.  This was accomplished by a phone call to Jay at Broader Transmissions.  Those of you reading this are probably thinking Wait a minute, the C6 has a single input shaft, and the AOD has 2.  You are right, this leads me to

Expensive Lesson #2:  The AOD's twin input shafts (one is the lockup for the OD) cause 2 problems.  Problem A:  The twin input shaft is a weakness in the AOD, and behind a torquey motor like an FE, this is what typically breaks first (Especially with a "no-longer stock" 390 in a 7000 lb 3/4 Ton doing pulling duty).  Problem B:  The small input shaft sticks out too far.  What I mean by this is with the shallow depth of the Quicktime housing, the small input shaft nearly protrudes into the pilot bearing area of the crank, making for a very difficult convertor build.  Both of these problems are remedied by doing the single input shaft conversion on an AOD and removing the OD Lockup feature.  Again, not a huge deal, but it was additional parts I had to buy, but it helps with the transmissions overall strength behind a big FE, but some efficiency is lost.

Expensive Lesson #3:  The Quicktime housing does not align accurately with the crankshaft centerline when mounted directly to the pump face.  I had to machine about 0.150" off the pump face so that the alignment ring of the Quicktime bell would engage the pump bore on the case and properly align.  I smoked one pump learning this the hard way.

I pulled and installed the transmission probably about 4 or 5 times before I was comfortable with everything and was ready for some proper road testing.  The problems continued from there.   At first, the transmission would not shift when cold.  It would shift great when warm, but would hold first until some temp got into the trans.  Then each gear would come on line as it got warmer and warmer.  In 10 to 30 deg F ambients, this would take 5 to 10 miles.  Rebuilt the trans twice with 3 different valve bodies and 2 governors, and it never did fix the problem.  Also, we had a hell of a time getting that small torque convertor's stall down low enough.  Initially it started out around 2400/2500 rpm.  This was fine at low speeds and around town, but when you tried to cruise along at 75+ mph (free way speeds in the Dakotas) it would build too much heat and cook the fluid.  Once I got the torque convertor stall down to a decent level (1800 rpm, no easy feat with a 450+ ft-lb 390 in a heavy pickup and small diameter convertor), then it would shift fine when cold but start acting up once warm by skipping shifts, missing 1st, skipping 2, and not downshifting properly.  After 18 months of farting around and pulling it out more times then I care to talk about, a C6 was sourced and back in that went.  I will just deal with the 3000 rpms at 65 for now.

Hind-sight being 20-20, I would have just taken the NP435 I also have under the bench, changed flywheels, added a clutch pedal and Ranger Range Splitter (I have one of these behind the 6.9 IDI in my '85 F350 and absolutely love it).  I would have been way ahead in both the money and headache categories.  The other good option would have been to send the Quicktime housing and trans to Broader like I did with the '62 Merc and let him build it.  I know Jay would have had it working right.

I can't answer if it would bolt to a newer 4R or 6R pump, but I think the same issues would be encountered.