Craig:

Sounds just like mine!

Can you describe the sound a little more? A loud "snap", or more like a brass hammer on the block?

Do you have power loss at all speeds and loads, or just at idle/low speed?

Any vibrations? Shake at idle, rumble at speed?

Mine is doing the following: hard shake at idle, much worse with A/C on. Low power on takeoff, but normal power when the turbo comes up. Loud "snap" -- injector knock -- at idle.

Recently, after an oil change (to Mobil 1) and a 200 mile trip, the idle smooths out intermittantly, the shake is much less, and the noise is intermittant rather than constant.

Compression is low, but above wear limit, lowest on #4 (the cylinder with the knock).

You can check for injector knock by loosening the cap nut on the injector line at the injector with a 14mm wrench -- noise will stop if the injector is knocking, since it won't be injecting with the nut loose. Stopping a good injector like this will cause the engine to shake more. Stopping a bad one will make less difference.

__________________
1972 220D ?? miles
1988 300E 200,012
1987 300D Turbo killed 9/25/07, 275,000 miles
1985 Volvo 740 GLE Turobodiesel 218,000
1972 280 SE 4.5 165, 000 - It runs!