[Chucksta]

"i have been considering a second svx for summer driving. i drove the svx to the mountains when it was almost 100 degrees this summer and drove it back from the mountains this weekend and it was -8 degrees. it's hard to properly prep a car when the temperatures are so extreme."

I live in the same kind of climate, 100 F in the summer, -25 in the winter. I have a thermostatically controlled aftermarket cooler. It does exactly what it's supposed to do, at 0 F, I get torque converter lock up as soon as the temp gauge hits about four o'clock.. Maybe five miles of gentle driving or so.

As "SVXfiles" noted, at 40 F , his is not staying hot enough, once the torque, converter locks up, to stay locked. That indicates that the cooler is actually cooling the trans fluid below proper operating temp.

As to the OP ( steveherman)'s original post, he wants to avoid a thermostatically controlled cooler... Why? Are they reputed to be prone to failure? , inaccurate temperature control? non adjustable set point? Properly functioning, they bring the system to it's optimal temp and keep it there.

As far as filters go, I have one, but it gets replaced every other oil change, along with four fresh quarts of synthetic. I just consider it cheap insurance.