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How would I know if the flex plate is cracked without pulling the engine out ?
To inspect it... pull inspection cover off the bell housing (engine/tranny-connection... for lack of better wording) you won't see the complete flex plate, but enough perhaps. You could purchase a fly wheel tool to manually rotate it for inspection or simply use large screw driver and slowly rotate plate by prying on the teeth of the plate and engine block as a fulcrum. Or a wrench using the torque converter bolts as a fulcrum. Or use the harmonic balancer bolt to turn the crank shaft. Note you may have difficulty actually seeing cracks or separation where the plate bolts to the Torque converter or to the crank shaft.
You could use a mechanic's stethoscope to listen at each cylinder for stuck bad lifters/valves or if stethoscope a long screw driver pushed against the heads at each cylinder and pressing your "good" ear to the handle of screw driver and listen for suspect cylinder.
Its a Jag but might be similar in "noise" your describinghere for your info what may look like with bell housing inspection cover removed.
