engine stalls when put into drive

My 69 Dart slant was like that for decades. I think it was always idling lean. A 4th carburetor (Holley 1920) fixed it. Another symptom was that when trying to optimize the idle spark advance, it liked a lot more advance. Increasing to 10 deg BTDC and the engine rpm would increase, increasing advance even more. I think it needs more advance when lean. If ever doing exhaust work, weld an O2 sensor bung in. You can get inexpensive rich/lean indicators, or go w/ a wideband monitor for more fidelity.
It seems my issue is definitely transmission related.( i'm going to bring it to the transmission shop to have them check the valve body .I like the idea about welding in the O2 sensor bung