(Edited now that the problem is fixed; answer is on one of the responses below, but here's the original question)......

I have my mobile mechanic here, who's pretty good. He changed out 1 bad glow plug that was toast and the delivery pump O-rings.

I had changed the O-rings about 7 years ago, and he seemed to be doing it just fine. When he was done, we started the car but it's clacking waaaay loud, not the nice purr it's supposed to be, plus the car is blowing smoke out the tailpipe and stalling at times if we let the idle drop.

His professional online source of info said to tighten the splined nuts back to 35 NM. Some members on this forum said 30 NM. I don't know how much make-or-break difference the extra 5 NM would be.

Can anyone think of something we did wrong that would cause such a problem? I'm thinking maybe we got a touch of dirt in one of the valve areas something, but he's a good mechanic and knows to be careful with that. It's possible maybe a bit of the old rubber from the old O-rings got in there. I highly doubt the glow plug is causing such a problem.

1991 300d, 196k