Hi Plumberdave, that is one fantastic van you’ve got there!
I’ll try to help with some info, but have to say in advance that I don’t have any expertise in drag racing.
The bell housing you want is the standard early 71-74 2.0 Pinto C4 automatic bell housing.
Later Pinto’s have the C3 Automatic with a different bell housing for 2.3 liters, you should forget about those, these are also in the 2.3 Mustang II’s.
The 2.0 bell housing will be a direct bolt up to your Cosworth block, which is essentially a beefed up standard 2.0 Pinto block.
I guess that a lot of Pinto club members might still have these just lying around, and Robert is already looking for you.
I’m sorry to have to tell you that I sold (for peanuts) the C4 and bell housing that I pulled out of my car called Donkey last year.
You might want to read through this article
http://www.pigseye.com/sadie/trans/c4.htm to get an idea of the differences in C4 specifications
.
Some reservations regarding your plans;
While C4 drag racing transmissions are easily bought, I doubt that any of them have valve bodies that would suit your engine, let alone racing torque convertors with 143 tooth flexplates. The input shafts on these transmissions are probably not compatible with your engine.
A normal early Pinto flexplate won’t fit, because your crankshaft has a different bolt pattern.
You’ll probably need a much lower diff ratio in your rear axle (to keep it streetable), and I doubt that these are available for Transit rear axles.
The C4 is just a 3-speed, if you are going to build this, I guess it is a no compromise undertaking, it’s either strip, or street, not both. And a lot of custom work.
If you want the comfort of an automatic (and forget about the strip altogether) then find a A4LD transmission behind a Sierra or Scorpio, but be warned, you still have to do the rear diff, the transmission can’t handle your Cosworth’s power, it will break, and the electronics won’t talk to your Magneti Marelli ecu.
By far the cheapest way to solve your problem on the street is getting a “normal” clutch.
I don’t claim to be an expert on any of this, these are just my humble observations, hopefully some of our more experienced racers can add to or correct this info.
Thanks for sharing your wild ideas with us!