moved my engine back about 13.5". wasn't too tuff. like you, got tired of helping on dirt cars. if you built your own cars, you can mod all you want just as easy as it's a race truck. moving it back will take care of the split drive shaft. as far as converter, figure you probably have alot of mid to high rpm power as the engine were dirt use, 4-5000 stall will probably work fine. 9' ford,gear it to top end rpms. you can either back half or use leafs with caltracs. lot of trucks go fast on them. all depends how much work you want to do(or cash). maybe spib will chime in, i know he just got done with a lot of mods to his blazer that works really good.