Need help understanding this plumbing layout and my options to remediate it and add a 2nd fl shower

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pac1085

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Hi,
I have a house in upstate NY built in 1953. It is on septic with mostly cast iron waste plumbing. Overall, the plumbing hasn't given me any issues and works "ok enough" for 2 occupants. On very rare occasions the shower drain can run slow causing some backup and sometimes the shower trap will get sucked out when I run the garbage disposal in the kitchen or drain a full sink of water. (The kitchen still has an S-trap)

I had to gut my upstairs due to an ice dam issue and want to add a shower up there. In the past it only had a half bath. I've had a few plumbers over but none of them seem to understand what's going on with the piping in the basement and aren't really interested in taking on the job. I would like to understand what's going on so I can figure out what to do going forward. I'm open to replacing the entire cast iron stack with new PVC. The downstairs bathroom layout won't be changing but needs a full gut as well.

For some reason the house has two exits to the septic tank. The usual 4" which contains the solid waste and a 2" which the shower and kitchen sink drain into. I'm not sure I understand why this was done, were they trying to separate the gray water back In the day and send it somewhere else? Can I eliminate this 2" all together and run the 1st floor sink and shower into the main stack? The galvanized pipe running along the wall is 12 feet long between the kitchen sink and main stack. How should I vent them? I'm thinking my only option for the kitchen sink is an AAV to replace the S-trap.

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Thanks for the help!
 
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