I'd hazard that since you are at 140 k with the original tranny and no fluid changes, band adjustments or aftermatket cooler (based on your post) you are going to be rebuilding soon. If you've done all these things...well you're still gonna be rebuilding soon. Wether you do or don't I'd add the big cooler and eliminate the check valve in the cooler line. Change fluid and adjust the bands, especially the second gear one. Abigger pan is nice but pricey. Use Mopar ATF+4 fluid. BTW, if the fluid is dark and toasty smelling, that's what your bands look like inside...
The cooler you run your engine the cooler your tranny fluid, so I'd consider a 180 stat too.
I'm impressed you got 140k out of your tranny.

 

Yes it has plenty of fluid in it, and its red, not brown and smells fine.

As stated in the original post, the tranny itself has 20k on it, less actually.

Working on the 180 degree stat as we speak.

The radiator fluid is pretty dark and dirty, so it could have just been that, that caused the overheat.

 

Do you know if you have the "death flash" or not? That could be the cause of the low power but not the tranny overheat.....

 

I thought you said your tranny overheated, not your engine. Your ENGINE coolant (which you say is dark and nasty) doesn't do squat for tranny cooling.

 

I do not know what the "death flash" is, but the factory tranny cooler appears to flow through the radiator as far as I can tell.
Am I wrong on this?
I know the lines go into it, so I cant imagine it having no effect on it.

 

actually, an overheated engine can be associated with a hotter than normal radiator, and if your only tranmission cooler is the one integrated to the radiator, it can contribute to higher transmission temps. and vise-versa.

arcsum - do a good flush on the engine block. there are drain plugs on each side tucked in behind the engine mounts. i really flushed a lot of rusty crap out of my block. beware mine were hard to remove and required vice grips to keep from rounding them off. i put them back in with some liquid teflon and not near so tight.

 

Thanks, I did a flush, but did not remove any plugs, just forced water in with the t-stat removed and let it flush out.

Y'know, i thought it was stock but maybe not.

I have a line that comes from the tranny, into the radiator, back out and into a cooler thats in between the radiator and the AC cooler.
I was told it was stock, but from the sounds of it, its not.
????

 

Yes, but that would also result in high engine temps, which he hasn't indicated occuring.

Yes, stock, the tranny has some lines into the radiator, however coolant does not flow to the transmission. Transmission fluid flows through separate lines inside the radiator. As I understand the system, one main purpose of the part flowing into the radiator is to help raise the tranny temps in colder weather more quickly. The tranny cooler between the rad and condenser is what does the bulk of the cooling.

 

So one of my friends just called me, he asked his dad, an old timer mechanic about it.

He said, if you werent puking ATF, it doesnt look and smell burnt, then my temp sensor is probably faulty.

Any thoughts on that theory, I was able to replicate the issue with 10 miles of when it happened the first time.

I do understand that coolant does not flow to the tranny, just thought it flowed to the rad to cool it.

 

I would also like to point out, that I feel like if I had the proper amount of power, the tranny wouldnt even be an issue. I think its working harder than it has to because the engine is under powered.