I have some updates guys
Got the truck up in the air today right after work. Did a little investigating and comparing of the noise to my previous videos of the last time I had a broken flexplate. Pretty close is sound, but just a tad different. Removed the inspection hole cover and the rubber plug from the bellhousing and watched the flexplate and torque converter rotate with the truck running. I didn't immediately notice anything strange, thought I saw a slight wobble in the flexplate, almost unnoticeable. Then I focused on the knocking noise, which was coming right from the bell housing area like right under the torque converter. I put my ear up to it and it was clearly in this area, to be sure I was correct on the location I put my ear as close as I could get to physically touching the rear of the engine block and the noise got farther away.
Turned the truck off and rotated the flexplate, checking all 3 bolts mating the torque converter and flexplate together. Man those babies are tight, couldn't get them to loosen at all
(I probably put way too much Loctite, in fear of them loosening again). I also checked for clearance on these bolt heads in relation to the engine block, nothing was making contact. I was sure something had to be amiss though. I rotated the flexplate about 2 more times around and then I noticed something, if I wasn't looking here I would of missed it. I noticed that the lip on the hub portion of the flexplate looked a bit too thick compared to what I remember and going off of pictures I have of it before it was ever installed. The section I looked at looked appeared normal
(as in no apparent damage) in width at first , but as I rotated it I started to see what appeared to be a very small separation between the hub and the flexplate. Rotated it even more and I saw a chip and a deep dull looking scratch right in the middle of this small raised lip of the hub. Continued to rotate and the separation I noticed was slightly jagged in appearance. I then noticed that this side of the flexplate became a tad harder to rotate too. I had to be sure my eyes weren't playing tricks, so I once
again rotated everything around, paying attention to this raised lip area and it for sure wasn't a consistent depth or look. My suspicion seems to be correct; I believe this flexplate cracked just like the previous one, but in a circular seperation around the hub area without any other cracks spanning off from it. I am attaching photos below, you can see the differences from one side of the hub lip to the next. I won't know 100% until the transmission is removed, but I think i'm on to something here.
First two photos are the same in different lighting to better reveal this blight: (ignore all the oil, replacement rear main seal also leaks......)
Area I started to notice a very minute separation:
As far as the issue with the health of my oil, that's what I get for procrastinating and letting the oil health decrease to the point of internal wear. Lesson learned there, DO NOT PUT IT OFF! If it turns out that a replacement of the flexplate is the only issue, i'll be continuing to baby it after that repair until I can get a second vehicle to take it's place as my daily driver. It'll be getting a refurbished motor for the Turbo atleast. My truck needs a well deserved rest and to officially become just the dedicated project/toy.