GREAT Help...
TRANSMISSION COOLER: Ambient temp 45F trans temp < 100F. Ambient temp 75F trans temp around 120F.
Interesting, I had kind of thought that liquid to liquid / radiator cooler whatever you want to call it, would help heat the transmission up. The oil cooler / cooler gets feedback from the radiator & engine coolant if it's plumbed through there. Makes since.
From what you are telling me, the trans cooler must be after the radiator in the plumbing?
Trans output -> Radiator -> cooler -> trans input?
Or is it
Trans output -> cooler -> radiator -> trans input?
My thought was to install oil thermostat as follows...
Trans output -> radiator -> thermostat (too hot) -> trans cooler - Trans input
bypass (too cold) -> trans input
Oh, I was just asking if you still had the radiator internal cooler; a lot of folks will bypass it altogether, which I don't think is a good idea because it won't heat the ATF in cold temperatures (at least in the climates where that's necessary.)
You are correct on that warming up the ATF. Also, from a thermodynamics standpoint, liquid-to-liquid is superior heat transfer than air-to-liquid, so even in the real hot operating conditions, it's a good idea to run the internal radiator cooler.
I looked at my suburban and it's your first scenario...
Did you just install the ATF cooler? You've run it an entire winter season? Maybe the external cooler is simply too big? I'll pay attention to my ATF temperature gauge in the next few days, but I think around this time, it barely makes the first tick mark.
So, ATF temperature I don't think you should focus rekated to your main concern. At least not until your other concerns are investigated.