200-4R troubles.......Need help diagnosing..........Please!

[79cutlass]

First, i'm going to start with my setup. 79 Cutlass with open 8.5 10-bolt 3.42. I switched from a th-350 last July to a Monster Motorsports Mega-Monster 200-4R, that supposedly can handle 450hp/tq. You can visit eatmyshift.com to see what is done to the transmission. I got the 1650stall convertor free with the trans and a "universal" TV cable with the Edelbrock geometry correction bracket. I also got a large trans. cooler from bulkpart.com. At first I ran my lines only to the cooler. I put about 500 miles on it before I put it away for the winter.

Before I put it away it started ticking from around the flywheel. I thought it might be a cracked/out of round flywheel. So last winter i dropped the trans. to change to a SFI spec flywheel from Summit. I also swapped to a higher stall TCI convertor, for when I put a bigger cam etc. in my motor. I got the 12" lock-up convertor(2200-2400stal) from a MonteSS member with roughly 1500miles on it. When I got that finished up I decided to run my trans. lines in the radiator as well as the cooler for colder weather driving. I have a DeRale Trans. Temp. Gauge as well.

This sping I have driven it about 500-1000 miles. All was well up until a week or 2 ago. My trans. generally doesn't get above 180 unless it's extremely hot and i'm getting on it. But even then I see the temp. drop after the fluid cycles trhough the cooler.

One day I was cruising around when I start to notice the temp start to rise about 180 with normal driving. It continues to rise to 220, so I hurried to my local Marathon Service Staion to put it on the lift. I couldn't see much but I beleive it was boiling out of the tube on top of the trans. I let it cool down to 180. Then I drove maybe 2 miles home and it was up to 220 again. By the time I got home it was up to 240 and I get out to check the fluid level when I notice I was dripping in my driveway, looking under my car I see a large pool of fluid. I shut it down for a few days frustrated with all the troubles i've had with my car.

I readjusted the TV cable to where the 1-2 shift was about 18, 2-3 around 30 and 3-4 around 50. Now after about 30-45 mins. of cruising around in 80degree weather in the counrty. It got up to about 220 and by the time i got home it was at 240. It wasn't shifting firm like it usually would. It would hesitate maybe a sec. or so shifting from park to drive(definetly more of a pause than normal). Fluid level was fine before I headed out and I was maybe dripping a drop or so now(nothing major).

Now I am stumped. I think I am going to run the trans. lines just to the cooler. But I know something else is wrong. I just don't know where to start. Sorry for the long post I thought it was neccesary to explain my trans. troubles. Hopefully somebody can give me a hand. Thanks -Ethan