So we did a thing....

Published on February 19, 2026 at 10:21 PM

So.... we did a thing.....

We were able to borrow an engine hoist from our friend Greg, and within a few hours Zach and I had the 2.8L V6 and the 700R4 out and sitting on the ground. Sheesh... Now what!?

Well, we ended up grabbing another 700R4 from an '89 IROC Z for cheap. (hopefully it's good) it was mated to a SBC 305... which we need to mate up to our SBC 350. Too much to get a new torque converter for our current transmission. (I'm learning so much researching this stuff)

So as you can see on the bench, we have our new to us updated 700R4. Apparently the '87 and up 700R4's had better internals.

But the new transmission had a cable speedo tailshaft. Our Starship Berlinetta has VSS for the digital dash. Luckily, everything swapped real easy. You can see both transmissions had 17 spline red gears that mated with the speedo gear. Thank goodness, something that went easy.

Next step is to get a longer 15mm open ended wrench to get the last bolt off of either side V6 motor mounts.... mount the new V8 mounts.

And this was the easy part ...

If you've ever done something like this, or have any pointers.... my inbox is always open! Drop a line!