89 B250 Ram van, trans noise?!?!??

[2stroke1971]

ITs an 89 B250, with the 360 and the a904 transmission.

I launched it hard off a stop light, and something let go. It ran fine, and drove fine, but I noticed a loud, metal on metal type sound. It seemed to be coming from the transmission, Sounded like under the transmission pan.
Using a stethoscope, I could hear it pretty good thru the top of the bell housing.

So, I unbolted the tranny and moved it back enough to remove the flex plate, but it is not cracked!

What else could it be? Can a torque converter fail like that- so it will still drive but tap? Something else in the transmission near the front? It was not slipping or anything like every other tranny Ive had go bad did...no miss on the engine, it still ran nice.

Also, the fluid was nice and red, no foam or anything. I drive it for about 6 miles after it broke. Once after a light acceleration, when I let off the gas, it gave a weird shriek, almost a grind, very briefly. The rapping it was making was pretty fast, faster than if it was, say, a broken rocker or something.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!