Transmission took a dump, any advice?

[Red92XLT4x4]

Well, I guess things can't get any worse, lol. My wife, newborn, friend and I went on a little road trip to the college we're going too in a few weeks to get a few things taken care of. We were heading back to our home town and were about an hour away when my wife said "Oh my god, why is the truck smoking so bad?" I turned around to see white smoke everywhere behind us! I tell her to pull over and kill it, the whole time thinking 'probably just a busted radiator hose leaking on the exhaust, no biggie....' I step out of the truck and look under and see red tranny fluid POURING out from somewhere. It honestly looked like it was pouring from the oil pan, that's where all the fluid is currently now collecting and dripping off on to the ground from. We had it towed to a friends shop and I was under there this morning looking around and coudln't see anything abnormal. There is tranny fluid ALL OVER the bellhousing, but the tranny itself is clean as a whistle! Like you could eat off of it kind of clean. The leak is somewhere up top, any ideas? I'm thinking bad front seal, cracked bellhousing, maybe a seized torque converter? Anyone have any ideas? I'm not a Ford man, so I don't know if there was something there that I'm missing over......

EDIT - Just thought I'd mention this, the transmission was shifting fine right up to when we turned off the truck. Don't know if that will help determine the cause of the problem, but just thought it couldn't hurt. We had it in OD and it up shifted perfectly right before my wife noticed the smoke and down shifted just fine while braking. Just figured that may be helpful.

 

[Glacier991]

My guess is your tranny overheated and was venting out the vent tube, which ends up near the top of the bellhousing. I'd refill it and clean the transmission, and then take it for a short easy drive and see if you still see signs of leakage... if so It may be a seal or the TC, but your symptoms are very similar to what I have. If I drive it hard, uphill, in hot weather, I can boil it over. (enough internal slilppage to create enough heat). I managed to get another winter (cold weather keeps it from boiling over) out of mine but have one ready to put in in the very near future.