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?

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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?

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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.