Going to try my hand at this...

Am at a cross roads as such in regards to powertrain version to go with in our '57. Guiding post is an homage to 1960's hot rod with some twist. Plan is a reasonable budget build to "clean" driver quality for weekends and fun runs. Looking to center around the rear end I have available- Currie Ford 9" with finned aluminum center section - Truck Arm rear suspension.

Rear End.jpg

With this in mind, here goes my dilemma was hoping for thoughts on. Pondering two directions: one is old school SBC (350 CI) with 3 speed TH transmission, other is something along the lines of LQ9 (6.0L) and 4L80. May be some insight to thoughts below could help me "out of the woods".

Have in the garage a freshly rebuilt TH400. Although rebuild was in early 90's and has not been installed in vehicle since. According to dad, it was a "performance rebuild" (street/strip based) with manual valve body. No torque converter at this time.


So... am thinking to swap valve body to allow for auto shift pattern. Question is, since trans has sit for so long (~30 years) would there be an issue using without first inspection/freshing of internals? Guess this leads me to my overall choice. If cost of work on transmission comes to a point maybe new unit is more cost effective??? Then would that justify moving to newer four speed transmission and therefore more modern LS based platform? Any thoughts are constructive opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading!!!