... Just to clarify, how does any air pocket get to the pump suction side? This cannot happen in any of the previous models due to the fact the return fluid is used in the lube circuit. The 68 is different in this respect and the only way I can see this being possible is all or part of the return fluid is routed directly to the pump intake without going back to the sump. Air returned to the sump is never going to hit the pump intake at the filter so there must be some provision for routing return fluid directly to the pump, given this scenario is possible.
This begs the next question, how is sump fluid cooled if return fluid is not being constantly mixed back into it? Is the fluid path after the filter controlled by a shuttle valve that splits the flow to sump and pump intake? Thanks for the follow up and any more insight into the above question.
My whole point is this seems to be a bit of a engineering glitch. To allow an outsourced non-integral part of the transmission to generate this type of failure is not what I would expect as quality design. I have to think that air in the cooler return would have some bleed path that would not allow it into the pump inlet. That is too easy to ignore implementation of.
I beg to differ, there is frequently an rpm surge. I can't say always because of course I have not seen every possible failure, but, a 150-200 rpm surge is normal. When it jumps 500-600 rpms it is bit more disconcerting. As you pointed out, warm this never happen and if it does there are other issues. However, it is interesting to note that this condition is only possible after the engine has been off for a period of time.
Cooler return oil is routed directly into the pump suction circuit on RFE transmissions. If this fluid were returned to the sump (as you correctly point out that it was on the old RE transmissions), it would go back to zero (actually, atmospheric) pressure and would have to go back through the main sump filter to get back to the pump. On the RFE, we save the energy (residual pressure) that's in this return fluid, and we don't have to draw the entire pump feed through the main sump filter. In addition, any debris from a converter failure (or residual debris in the cooler from a previous trans failure) gets trapped in the cooler return filter, instead of getting fed into the lube circuit.
Although cooler return oil does not go directly into the sump, the pump output feeds not only the converter, but also the valve body, clutches, and lubrication. All of the oil that gets fed to these other circuits eventually ends up returning to the pan. I guess you could view the pump as having two inlets (sump, and cooler return) and two outlets (converter/cooler, and other circuits). Everything gets mixed together as it goes through the pump. So some of the oil from the sump will go to the converter/cooler, and some of the oil from cooler return will go to other circuits (and eventually back to the sump).
Yes, technically some fluctuation in engine RPM (when TCC drag occurs) is not unusual, due to undershoot/overshoot as the PCM tries to maintain the proper idle speed, but the target RPM does not increase.