87 G20, engine and tranny advice needed.

DRA · April 18, 2004

New to this particular forum, looking for some advice/help.

I bought a 87 G20 to use as a work van, seemed to run fair, guy said nothing had been altered to the best of his knowledge but that he could not be 100% sure.

Looked up the vin to get the engine/trans combo and picked up the parts for a "minor" tuneup.

I dropped the trans pan and realized this was not the tranny I had picked up the filter and gasket for (been a couple of months now), I can't remember now if I ended up having to pick up a filter and gasket for a 200 or 250 trans. When going over the engine I noticed several vacum lines plugged off and a few items that just didn't look right.

So bottom line is I have a different engine/tran combo than I first thought. To make matters worse the tranny is starting to slip, won't make it up my driveway in reverse without a little push. The motor itself starts fine, there is a slight puff of black smoke when revved, power seems to be lacking and the carb seems to load up on takeoff like it's gonna die (have to feather the throttle to get her moving), seems to run much better once the temp gets up to normal operating temp. Still seems to be lacking in power, could this be associated with the trans. (I'm a manual transmission person, love being in total control, A/Ts are not my area of expertise).

I want to keep the van, it would serve my purpose better than a pickup truck. Theres a local place that has rebuilt A/Ts for what sounds like a reasonable price, carryout is around $400 w/6 month 6000mi warranty.

1: I want to keep the drivetrain as simple as possible, what year th350 A/T do I need to look for to keep things simple (non-computer)?

2: I would like to get away with ditching the onboard computer (ECM, ECU, PCM, whatever?), how dependent is the 87 on that little black box under the seat?

3: I would like to go with a manual choke, carb/intake suggestions that might simplify things for me?

4: All those vacum lines, where do I start to eliminate the unnessesary and make sure I don't make things worse than they already are?

I appreciate any advise/suggestions, on a tight budget so try to keep that in mind. Would also appreciate a shove toward any websites that might help out.

Thanks!