ok, sorry for the long story but i believe a backstory is necessary to cover as much info as possible. Recently purchased a monster trans from an acquaintance that he bought new back in 2015. tfor those curious it was their SS24-TH400. the converter is a 3200-3800 stall and the dipstick i used was a stubby type, not the lokar or ones that go all the way up to the engine bay. also something to note, ever since the trans was installed on cold motor/trans when putting into reverse, it would take a while for the car to roll back. sometimes i would need to hold the RPM to about 1200-1500 for a few seconds for the car to start bumping backwards. once the car/trans is warmed up theres no lag going into reverse.

my mechanic friend had installed it in my 01 trans am and put roughly 150 miles on it since then cruising around. a couple weeks ago while driving on the freeway around 75mph, i accidentally downshifted from 3rd to 2nd and the motor hit what felt like fuel cut and i instantly upshifted back to 3rd and there was no response in speed/mph. i coasted off to the shoulder and turned the car off. fired the car back up and was able to cycle through all gears, P/R/N/1/2/3. i thought it was a fluke and the car/trans drove fine and so i put maybe 50 miles days later and havent really gotten on it hard since then.

fast forward this past friday i was again on the freeway and was in 3rd and gotten on the throttle hard up to ~110mph when i smelled trans fluid and the car was running rough so i pulled over to the shoulder. i have a trans temp gauge thats connected to the test port on the trans. the needle was pegged at the 260*F. i got out and checked underneath and saw a few drops of trans fluid on the pavement behind the rear bumper but the undercarriage was NOT saturated in fluid. the car has an aux trans cooler which is routed as follows: trans>stock radiator>aux cooler>back to trans. i touched the aux trans cooler and it was surprisingly cool to the touch. i limped the car home, which was 5 miles ago in 2nd gear. if i try and shift to 3rd it would engage but would pop out. also when i put the shifter to reverse the car would stutter.

the following day, i jacked the car into the air on all 4 wheels. i fired up the car and was able to run through all the gears, and reverse did not had the stutter but again the tires were off the ground. the vent tube was wet with trans fluid. so the question is, did something break inside? tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and dry and i plan on taking the car out and test drive around the block and see if it runs and engages in all the gear. my one mechanic friend think i cracked a sprag.

again sorry for the long read

 

The only way you'll know for sure is to tear it down. And a temp gauge should really be in the pan where the fluid is to get a more accurate reading. In the case will always read warmer but when you're seeing 260* on the gauge😬😬

 

Yes I have many ask me about that port and I tell them its dead end and you are really measuring case temperature which is affected by heat from engine, external sources and is not a good indicator of actual trans temp. The best places are in pan or if that's not an option for some reason the return cooler line. But PAN is by far best option .

 

So when you checked fluid level, was it low, or extremely low?