Engine braking in drive has to be through the TC.
Back in the 80s, when I worked in a driveline rebuilding shop, the line next to me, was rebuilding convertors. I watched them out of the corner of my eye, as I went about my business. I saw them cut open TCs, replace washers with bearings, and modify the fins of the turbines. One of the things they did was carefully bend those fins over to a new angle. Sometimes they would swap out the stators. They were building modified stall TCs from OEM units. I bought one of those. It was called a Dirt-Jerker. It stalled about 400 to 600 rpm higher than stock. It gave the old teener a good punch off the line. But with 2.76s, there was very little engine breaking in drive.Drop it into 2nd, and there it was. I concluded at that time, that the low driveshaft rpm was insufficient to drive the TC in reverse against those modified fins.No biggy I thought.
Some years later the body on that 73 Dart was done.I pulled the engine and tranny, put them into storage, and junked the body.
Some 10 years later, I resurrected that combo, and stuffed it into my FormulaS clone for a winter motor.But now with 3.55s.Well, Surprise! Now I had engine braking in Drive.
At the same time, that teener found itself wearing TTI headers,those dual 3 inch pipes, and a little TQ 4bbl.The stall seemed to be up from what I remembered.I put some 340 or 360 valve-springs on her and let her buck. That was a very fun winter combo.
Point of story is this; On a cheap TC, engine braking seems to be lackadaisical until you put some driveshaft rpm through it.
