AOD or C-4 ...??? whats your thoughts??

You might want to give Lentech a call and ask them about their valvebodies. They really take alot of stress off the internals. They've got AOD's living behind 9 second cars. A hardended input shaft would really help too. Give Baumann or Transgo a look for shift kits.
An added benifit of the Lentech valvebody is it eliminates the stupid 1-d-od shift pattern and gives you the proper 1-2-3 shift with an electric switch that engages OD.
 
in my old 90 gt i went through 4 AOD's and in the 5th one i put in a TransGo shift kit and the biggest cooler they had at the parts store and it held up for about 10k miles or so..for $110-130 bucks it would always cherp 1-2 and 2-3 on the right pavement..i'd find another cheap AOD and do those things to it if your want to have it around for cruisin until you beef everything up..well good luck with it