I thought perhaps the connecting rods could bend at any time during the life of the car - depending on when it finally ingested EGR-induced chunks of carbon.

And then I thought further that bent connecting rods might result in reduced performance.

Maybe the symptoms are more quickly obvious when you have bent connecting rods.

Ken300D

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1982 300D at 351K miles
1984 300SD at 217K miles
1987 300D at 370K miles