> <<My favorite mod would have to be removing the rear heater and using
> its feed hoses for the auto tranny cooler, thus saving 300-odd dollars
> by not having to get those weird tee hoses the factory used.>>
> 
> What?
> 
> I just replaced all of my coolant hoses, and I skipped buying the large
> dollar rear heater hoses.

I'm talking about the tee HOSES. You know, those awful 5/8(15mm?)
grafted to 1.25" franken-monsters feeding the AT cooler that cost $150
more apiece than their manual tranny counterparts.

> the only thing holding you back from using std.5/8's heater hose to the
> rear heater is the T fittings are 5/8's, 1/2 to the heater.
> 
> The 5/8's hose clamped down fine at the heater valve, good and tight.
> 
> The only thing that is needed to be changed it the T fitting's under the
> Van, 5/8''s to 5/8's.

Yep, I did the same thing, only instead of feeding the rear heater,
they feed the transmission cooler. I considered just re-routing those
evil 1/2-to-5/8 "bottleneck" hoses to the AT cooler, but I figure the
more bizarre assymetric/non-standard  crap I can eliminate from the
system, the easier future repairs will be. Split open that 1/2-to-5/8
hose and guaranteed it'll be a LONG walk to the nearest place that has
a replacement.
 
> A $1.50 part.
> 

Wow! Where'd ya find 'em that cheap? I had the devil of a time finding
suitable 5/8" hose barb tees AT ALL. Ended up paying something like
$15 for the ones I did eventually order. Not like it'd break the bank,
but I'd take $1.50 ones if I knew where to look.