[NiftySVX]

Lots of stuff to clear up here. You need to be monitoring the temp in the pan. Cooler line temp means nothing. The SVX stock has a very good transmission temp stabilizing system that works quite well unless you have a modified engine making substantially more power or a high stall converter.

The filter that was put on the early cars was a mistake and shouldn't have been done. Hopefully everyone has replaced their radiator and converter by now. That filter was a really dumb idea.

As for the transfer clutch, that is not how it works. It doesn't just hang out with some value. That is how many manufacturers worked that tried to copy the subaru system. It is based on the theory of predictive modeling. That is to say, the "Subaru all wheel driving system" (I just love to use their silly name) actually does what they advertised. It tries to anticipate wheel spin and stop it from happening. It was a state of the art system at that time. Let me try and illustrate:

The age old argument about the MPT clutch having a certain torque split is really just an exercise in futility. The clutch is constantly changing. So realistically you can have a torque split of, say, 5% or so when cruising in 4th at low throttle. In manual 1 it is more like 30-40%. In 2 at half throttle it might be 25%. In reverse it is something like 32%. If it slips at all it defaults back to its close to 50-50. Problem is that these transmissions don't have the line pressure to lock that clutch together. You can easily spin the front wheels on a low traction surface and the tcu will try but it can't/won't put enough pressure back to the rear to truly "lock" the thing. This is why I did what I did with my pump, transfer clutch, and line pressure when I still ran that system.

If you remove the front axles on an automatic that has the MPT you will break it in a big hurry. The transfer clutch hub is tiny and is spot welded on the reduction drive gear at the back of the output shaft. I've seen them break just from messed up duty Cs on AWD cars so I wouldn't try it…I wouldn't even try to drive an SVX with the old school "locked" the way some do. (these are just guesses/experience talking here)

If you want to do some math, you can make a roundabout calc, it will show the stock SVX 4eat should be good for something like 350 or more horsepower. But again, that was done by some of us as more of a mental exercise.

I would guess that taking an early SVX forward clutch with 8pc and a late model hc with all the holes and the small bearing and the newer hub and reverse drum, getting some pretty good accum springs, and modifying the pump and or software to increase base line should give you a 4eat that would hold up to a lot. I would probably take a donor trans, say a 1994 or newer SVX unit, tear it down, put a 4.11 or 4.44 gear in it and make those modifications if I wanted to build a strong 4EAT. But I am not aware of anyone who has done that.

I built mine this way but with a stock pump and a 3.70 ratio with VTD and I don't expect to have any problems out of it.