Itis, get off your own sickness of "cheaper than a church mouse" and get the right convertor under there. Those heads are hungry now and perhaps asking for more pine tar in the slippage department.
I sure did with a Lenny unit and made a whole lot of difference in the right direction. Let me not discount "Top Boys trans magic as well.

I would suspect a more realistic deep bottom 9's with a convertor or bar link setup, but a ceiling 8's with some weight loss in the right places in conjunction with the convertor and link.