coolant flush

[ian]

So after I hacked the aftermarket heater out of my rig, I decided it would be a good time to flush the system. How convenient to have a place to tee in (where the heater core was).

So I hook up the prestone kit and turn on the hose.. water starts to come out the radiator fill.. good.

Then I try to start her up.. cranks once and kind of fights turning another revolution.. WTF? A few more cranks and similar hesitation. Finally it cranks over as normal but won't fire!? After about a minute of this it finally starts up. It's misfiring like mad for about 10 seconds.. black smoke. Sounds like it's firing on five. Then it starts running as I'd expect it to.

So I let it do its thing.. shut it off after 5 minutes and seal the system back up. Things seem ok.. but I'm concerned I did something stupid (diy noob mechanic).

So.. here's my question.. by hooking the system up in the heater loop rather than the recirculation loop, did I somehow force water into one of the cylinders? Is this the sign of failed head gasket?

I'm going to check all the plugs tomorrow. Any idea what I need to do a compression test? Never done one myself.

Ugh.. Time for a ... or maybe

Thanks in advance.

 

[CruisinGA]

Your household water tap doesn't have as much pressure as a running engine's coolant system, so I would be suprised if you did any harm....

 

[ian]

Thanks GA. That one bit of info will help me sleep better. Nothing worse than knowing you fscked up your own rig by making some noob mistake .