Back on it.
I found the redline fluid in Henderson, NV, and the good folks at Meyer's automotive on Boulder Highway were nice enough to let me do a flush and fill in their bays. It turned into a two-day ordeal when a rear wheel valve stem delaminated from the tube in their parking lot, but they maintained a sense of humor throughout. My humor failed a bit on the following day when the new tube was flat. It seems the kid who installed it neglected to run the nut down on the valve stem, I didn't double-check his work, and . . . well . . . now I'm shopping for tubeless.
But I digress.
With the new fluid I'm able to sort out some things, but the fluid itself did not solve the problem. Temperature still rises rapidly under high vortex (pulling out from a stop) conditions, and the torque multiplication just isn't there at low speeds. When warm, pressure, although vastly better off idle, still drops to zero within a few seconds of stopping.
Overall, my impression of the Redline hi-temp ATF is good. It got up to 200f without scorching and the pressure at any temperature is noticeably better. However, it has a major inclination to expand and blow back through the overflow when the engine is shut off. That's getting on my nerves and it stinks, too. I might have to get a bigger tomato can to catch it in, and/or use a pressurized radiator cap.
At high speed it continues to run well -- temp drops to below 150 and pressure is acceptable. I did not run it long enough to see how pressure held up in the long term, since it was apparent that the fluid solved nothing and the trike was not roadworthy. Rather than kill it in the desert, I trailered it back to Whidbey Island.
In my research I found this about torque converter stators:
" A locked one-way clutch will also cause the fluid to run dangerously hot, which can damage the transmission and lead to transmission failure. If the one-way clutch fails to hold its position and freewheels in both directions, the torque converter cannot multiply torque normally and the vehicle will accelerate slowly (like starting out in 2nd gear). The only cure for either condition is to replace the torque converter."
Given the above, I'm now guessing that my problem is the stator. It's freewheeling and won't lock up to give the torque multiplication. That's affecting the engine stall speed, the trike's ability to roll off from a stop, climbing hills, etc, and it's making it very hot.
The good news is that it takes less than an hour to remove the t/c, which I have done. It's on the bench next to its replacement. I want to compare them before doing the swap. If this fixes it, I want to have the failed one opened up and inspected.
Stay tuned . . .