E4OD Trans Issues

[MichaelP]

I've had a couple strange issues (possibly related) with my trans recently. My trans is a factory rebuilt unit with about 40k miles on it, about 36k of those have been on Schaeffer's sythetic fluid, with a Tru-Cool 4590 trans cooler (in addition to the radiator heat exchanger), and with the Sonnex valve & tricumulator springs. It has also been running an Edge Evolution on "Race" setting for the same time frame.

The truck has spent most of its past 40k miles either towing a race car trailer (4500 lbs), hauling a camper (3000 lbs), or both, and also a fair amount of drag racing (but without boosting on the launch). It just has a Tymar intake and 5" exhaust for mods.

Recently while hauling the camper up a slight grade, I noticed that if I back off the throttle slightly, the converter unlocks. IIRC it used to unlock if I gave it more throttle, so suddenly this seems backwards. About the same time I noticed that if I was hauling both the camper and the race car, at the top of a steep hill I would leak transmission fluid. It was always happening when I got home late at night from the races, so I could not see where it was coming from. I finally saw it close up this time, and it was definitely coming from the converter dust cover, presumably leaking from the pump seal. It was a slow but steady stream. Over the course of 2 mintutes I'd estimate that it lost about 1/4 of a quart (a puddle about 18 inches in diameter on concrete). As soon as I shut it off the leak stopped. After sitting a while I restarted it and it was fine. When it was leaking, the ambient temp was 95°F, the trans test port temp was 190°F, and the pan temp was 182°F. I had just climbed a long steady grade to my house.

Any ideas? I know when the factory trans went out it would sometimes leak from the front pump area after climbing a grade, but it would also slip noticeably and set a code. So far no slippage. If this is a converter problem, am I likely to be able to replace only the converter? Money is really tight right now, so I want to get out as reasonably as possible.

Thanks,
Michael Pliska