For the sake of this post I’ll be referring to an 02 Mustang 3.8l v6. Top dead center in this (or all) case means that cylinder 1 is at the top of the cylinder on the compression stroke. The firing order is 1-2-3-5-6-4. Does this mean that cylinder 2, when cylinder 1 is TDC, is on the compression stroke? And following that, 3-5-6-4 in that order will be on the compression stroke once each previous cylinder is TDC, correct?
And now a separate semi-related question. I accidentally hooked up my distributor in the wrong order. I had 5 on the distributor going to cylinder 4, 6 to cylinder 5, and 4 to cylinder 6. I ran it for probably 2 minutes max with a few pretty major backfires. Then noticed plumes of smoke coming out of my exhaust. This was all after changing my head gaskets in the first place and now I think I fudged up and blew another gasket. So now my question, is it possible that I destroyed my valves/piston head in that short amount of time AND blew another head gasket?
This whole thing has been disheartening. I really needed to get this right the first time and I feel like I’ve put myself into an even worse position.
Four stroke engine, so the piston is at TDC at both the end of the compression and the exhaust strokes. And each cylinder follows in the same order as the firing order. Getting the firing order wrong will make it run like garbage, however unlikely to cause damage.
Would a hefty amount of backfiring cause a plume of smoke to come out of the exhaust?
The cause of the backfiring certainly could.