Can a torque converter kill the motor when shifting into D.

[roadman5312]

          It's a 73 Duster, 318, mild cam, Edelbrock intake 4 barrell. Stock 727 with stock converter. If the idle is set @ 900 @ operating temp and you put it in gear it dies. In order to keep it running the idle has to be @ 1300/1400 rpm's.  This guy is being told it's the converter. Transmission operates good, shifts fine.   

[734406pk]

If the converter was so worn that it would stall the engine, it would make one heck of a racket IMO. The symptoms sound like a lean condition, vacuum leak etc. Power brake booster ruptured may be?

[jhaag]

quick and simple answer is yes. However if the cars drives and shifts normally, it sounds more like a tuning issue. You need to provide more info. Did this just start? Was the car running and driving normally before this happened? Was anything changed that could have affected the way the car runs? etc. etc.

[Chryco Psycho]

 
 Very unlikely , more tuning or dist issues

[Strawdawg]

A bigger cam can cause an engine to die when you drop it into gear on a stock converter...particularly if the engine is cold.

But, a mild cam that allows the engine to make 12-14 in/hg at 900 rpm idle should work fine with a stock converter.  In that case, it sounds like a tuning/engine problem as mentioned.

[73_Cuda_4_Me]

If you are running a stock distributor, you might be running into the same mechanical curve problem I had on my 340... with a mild cam, it needs a little higher idle speed and 15-18 deg advance at idle, and mechanical curve starts coming in around 900, adding 5-10 degrees advance, and when you drop it into drive, it loads the engine just enough to cause mechanical advance to drop off, and engine stalls.

I built an advance limiter plate with slots shortened on inside edge, so the advance springs were a little tighter at idle, yet limited total advance to 36 degrees all in. My advance curve now starts at 1300 instead of 900. With an auto, you should get about 200-250 RPM droop when put in D...

If you watch timing light and adjust idle speed from 600 to 900, if timing shifts from your initial, then you have same issue as I did... my timing was floating around 5 degrees and wouldn't stay the same on different days... kept fussing with it until I put in the limiter plate, then was rock solid...