My Pete rebuild

[Nostalgic]

I had no reference on this thing as to how it ran before, what it sounded like, etc., and other than my farm equipment, no diesel experience whatsoever, I missed something that probably should have stood out to me. I know what a Cat 3046 and my little turbo Kubota 'whatever it is' sounds like, but this thing was all new. Is it supposed to sound like that? Or what is the exhaust supposed to smell like? How is it supposed to feel and sound on a hard pull?

Remember, I didn't touch my IFSM at all, and since someone must have replaced all six injectors (date coded 2015), I didn't replace them either. I figured to do the injectors and IFSM, it would have added $8-10k to my build (this was supposed to be a $8-15k total project in the beginning).

Here's the signs I probably missed/dismissed:

1 - On startup/idling it would burn the eyes pretty quickly in the closed garage. (I dismissed this because, well, it puts out a LOT of exhaust compared to my little engines, and my shop is small)
2 - On hard pulls there was a little bit of a "rap rap rap" reverberation from time to time (who knows this may still be there, I haven't put a load on yet today)
3- My dash readout was always a .25+ MPG higher than hand calculations.
4- Exhaust seems to make a lot more soot than it should.
5- A week ago as I was running beside a solid barrier in the left lane, I could hear a knock under load - it was the first time I heard a distinctive knock, and apart from being right next to the concrete barrier I couldn't hear it any other time. I chalked it up to either compressor knock, or my paranoia.

But then when 2/3's of the way up fancy gap when things started to heat up I heard that knock again, only it wasn't faint. After cresting and cooling things off some it wasn't as bad, but any time I was in a pull I could hear it.

At this point, in my mind, I was going to be shopping for a block and eating the core...

Home for a 34, and under a load, I figured I'd check injectors since I didn't have time to handle much anything else. Turns out #6 was bad, and I'm betting that it's been bad all along, just not bad enough to be obvious? Hunter's only had 2, and one looked like it missed QC day at Cummins, otherwise I'd have rather done the back 3 at least... I picked up a set of spare Timing and Fueling actuators just in case - but I simply didn't have time to tear mine down and inspect them - not to mention, I need to find Rawze's videos and do a refresher.

I have a trip to finish today, so we'll see how she does?

Oil is black, so I'm hoping this is the root cause?