Originality At Its Finest
All of the power he was putting in was like singing the same old tune over and over. But for his classic conversion, he wanted it to be genuine.
"A lot of the older Suburban conversions I see on the road today have either the Dodge auto or manual transmissions put in. I never saw one with an original GMC turbo 400 in it," says Waddell. "But that's what I wanted to see in mine."
Waddell headed over to Mike's Trick Shift in Weatherford, Texas, and had them rework the GMC turbo 400 transmission to handle an excess of 1000 pounds of torque. The transmission itself was an older three-speed, but power is the name of the game. Waddell added a Gear Vendor overdrive as a fourth gear, which lowered his rpm's and gave his engine the power to push 75 miles per hour at a cozy 2100 rpm's. The previous upgrades gave power, but the original GMC transmission gave it style and flair, which in a classic, is a thing of beauty.
When all was said and done, the old `77 Suburban made its way from a gentle giant to an engine-screaming, tire-burning, 537 horsepower beast. Waddell finally had the classic he wanted, but his originality wouldn't let him stop with this build until the old `burb was sitting pretty.