New gal from UT here! Need some help.

Welcome aboard! It's nice to have another woman aboard. With the 4 barrel swap, there could be a good chance that your kickdown linkage is not right. You need to find someone to look at it and make sure it's there and functioning correctly. If not correct, your transmission life will be cut short. Maybe you can take the air breather off and post some pictures of the left side of the 4bbl throttle bracket and linkage. Good luck!