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After stopping to check out a local 'for sale' squarebody, I got to talking with the owner. We talked about the 73-87 trucks and he also showed me his current daily driver, which is an 84 four wheel drive short box. I asked him about the engine and was surprised when he said it had been a 305, but he swapped it out for a 292 from a 64 3/4 ton. As the owner of a 292 powered truck, I was intrigued.

We talked about chevy straight sixes and the specifics of the 292. The guy seemed very knowledgeable about the subject. However, one bit surprised me. He told me that 292 sixes only came equipped with manual transmissions. My face must have revealed my doubts, as he then told me to "think about it... when have you seen a 292 mated to an auto?" 292's are not very common around here, but the ones that I have seen were mated to sm465's. I attempted to justify this by suggesting that the 292 was the base engine in heavy duty 3/4 ton and one ton trucks. Thus when one picked the base engine, they picked the base transmission as well. But surely some picked the auto. It must have atleast been an option? He wouldn't have any of it, and insisted that the 292 was only mated to a manual trans.

I did some digging on the gm heritage center site and found that you could get a 292 with an automatic. However, in 1984 for example, this was only possible in a one ton. Any 292 powered 3/4 ton truck did not have an automatic transmission listed as an available option, only the sm465.

So with that, now I'm just curious to hear from others. Does someone own or know of a 73-87 truck that came factory equipped with a 292 and an automatic trans? I know that the 292 started in 63, but for my interests I'm looking at the 73-87 trucks.

FWIW my truck is a 1981 GMC K25 292/sm465/np208/14 bolt s.f.+ten bolt/4.10 gearing/ 8,600 lb GVWR.