Greetings Hearse Fans! It has been a while since we did an update! We took a little break from the Hearse while we prepared our Drag EVO, Porsche 996TT and GT-R for the Texas Mile .

When we left off we had gotten the engine into place and were waiting to fit the transmission. For this build I chose the GM 4L85e from a Chevy Van. The transmission is larger and stronger than the 4L60e that was removed. Even so the 4L85e is rumored to have a limit of about 800 ft. lbs. of torque so I will probably need to upgrade should I chose to add any more power. The next step will have to be a 3 speed Turbo 400 transmission but I just really wanted to keep the drivability of the overdrive for now. Fingers crossed.

I turned to long time friend Lawrence Loshak and his company ETE Reman in Milwaukee Wisconsin to rebuild and upgrade the 4L85. Although they don’t specialize in performance transmissions Lawrence told me he had a couple of gear head technicians that could help me out.

While I was waiting for the transmission to be upgraded I contacted Dean at DRC Transmission in Arlington Heights IL. for suggestions on a torque converter for my combination. Given the weight and power combination he suggested we start with a 3K stall.

Since we are using the larger 4L85e transmission we were not sure of a couple of things. First if there would be any clearance issues in the transmission tunnel and second what to do for a cross member to support it.

Luckily the 4L85e fit with no issue. After getting the transmission bolted in one of my Fabricators, Shane Smith made the cross member to support the back end of the transmission.