I remember the power loss getting progressively worse as I went along(took me almost an hour to get into the city with the trafic). Also, as mentioned the air cleaner was soaked and there was a lot of blowby. A cracked ring or hole in a piston would explain the blow by and would have pushed a lot of engine oil into the air cleaner creating the smoke. As the filter element became more saturated with oil(it is a K&N) it would have incresingly restricted air flow, explaining the increasing reduction in power. Having #3 not fireing and being a drag on the system would explain the violent shaking.

Yeah, I've got to tear this thing down to see what hapened, just out of curriosity. Also, right now all the existing engine is, is a boat motor(very large boat). If I find out what went wrong it may be rebuildable with a set of rings and maybe a piston(gasket, bearing etc.).

Thaks for all the input.

__________________
Sedecrem

82 300SD 290k(needs engine swap)
79 240D 354k with new heart transplant w/220k
82 240D w/auto tranny soon to be manual 4 speed