I'm in the process of building a 1951 F1, and I want to put an automatic in it so the wife can drive it. I am aware of the various automatic conversions available for the current good running flathead 8 that is in the truck, but I'm also aware of the cost involved.
I have a 94 E150 that I'm using as a parts storage building, it has a 4.9L 300 six with an E4OD transmission. I got the truck for almost free as the engine is bad. From what the P.O. said, I think the Timing gear probably broke, but the truck has over 300K on it. I can get a rebuilt long block for about what I could sell the flathead for, so that is my thought. I also plan to have a local tranny shop do a quick 'tune up' on the E4OD.

Because of the transmission I intend to keep the EFI and use the harness and ECU from the van. My question is, since I don't plan to put a cat converter on the 51, so there is really no need for the smog pump, what can I remove and what other changes will I have to make?

 

Look up Bentdsons adapters, I wouldn't give up in the flathead. Lots of modifying there. Or, a more simple option, teach your wife how to drive it the way it is.

Tom

 

The timing gear broke in the flathead or the 300? If it's the 300, what happens is that the driven (cam) gear is phenolic, and at high miles will shred the teeth. But you generally can replace it with another and get going again; I don't think any of the 300s bend valves when the cam stops turning. Everybody but me will tell you that you should get an aftermarket metal gear, but the phenolic gear will go well over 100,000 miles with a stock cam.

 

Thanks Tom, this is not my only flathead, I have one in the '50 F5 in my avatar. I am aware Bentdsen's adapters as well as Wilcap's and Speedway's. the adapters run between $400 and $800 with Bendetsen's being the most expensive. After that is of course the cost of a transmission, I would go with a Ford AOD and a rebuilt will run $1000+, so by the time I am done with the shift kit and misc parts, it's realistically a $2-3K job.
As far as the wife learning to shift, she's 60 years old and unwilling to try.

 

If you do try to replace the 300 timing gear make sure to drop the pan and clean it out. If not the chunks of the cam gear can block up the oil pump pick up tube and starve the engine of oil.

If you are going with a rebuilt long block then you don't need to worry about that.

 

If I do use the 300, the only option I will pick is to buy the rebuilt long block. As I said in my original post, the van has over 300K on it, so I would not bother trying to fix it.

Back to my original question, which nobody here has addressed, IF I use the 300, I will discard the Cat converter, so what do I have to change or alter if I remove the smog pump?

 

I've seen some very good running 300K 300's!

To answer your question the belt. I've had some EFI 300's that had either seized up or removed smog pumps and I don't recall any issues with the engine running.

 

Some early EFI 4.9L's had batch fired injectors, where three cylinders would be injected at the same time. so, a 2 channel ECM.

1990 though I hope they did away with that, and one way to check is to study the schematics and verify that each injector has it's own pin on the ECM.

The reason I brought this up was that so much fuel was being dumped into the catalytic converter, that an air pump had to be used to ensure there was enough O2 (Air) to completely burn that excess fuel.

If you have a fully sequential injection system, I doubt you need a smog pump. Although a stock Ford system would expect a catalytic convertor in the system and be tuned for it.