I would have suspected that blowing black smoke means you had too much fuel, not insufficient
Be that as it may...another phantom for you to be aware of.
I have a glass bowl under my fuel filter on my backhoe. My machine was cutting out ("running out of fuel") and would catch itself. I KNEW I had a full tank so was perplexed.
Long story short, the glass bowl under the filter had filled up to the rim with water. This was evidently choking off the normal flow of fuel through the filter and killing my engine on an intermittent basis.
Although I replaced the filter, all I really "had" to do to fix this specific problem was to drain the water out of my glass bowl.
On the IH 444 that we have, when I need to bleed the lines, I simply take an adjustable wrench and simply crack (barely loosen) the feed lines and turn the engine over. I do not loosen them very much, just enough to break the seal.
I'm still intrigued on the blowing black smoke prior to losing power and quitting.
Makes me wonder if something else is an issue??
Were you there to smell it? Could it have been oil getting into the cylinder or was it black diesel smell?