I see two very important things that many of us overlook when asking for help in one of those cases:

1. I don't know which Combustion chamber height is when you use x shims. Measure it with a piece of solder wire. This is the way to know if you are too low or too high of height in your combustion chamber.

2. Pipe? Brand, model and type of manifold. Sometimes when a engine starts to eating glow plugs is because you are using a too short pipe.

Conrod is fine, but... how's going the main bearing? disassemble the engine and look to the main bearing, put your finger and see how it runs, it should run smooth. At the first doubt about the integrity of the main bearing, change it.