About 9 months ago I discovered that my cooling system was sludged up by oil. After research I knew I had to at least put in a new oil cooler. I had another vehicle so I just parked it.
Well I changed out the oil cooler and decided I might as well put a new EGR cooler in as well. The batteries were dead by the time I got to it. So I had a couple of vehicles hooked up to it. Still it would not start. This morning I let it charge for about an hour. Its sounding more like it wants to start and black smoke is now coming out the tail pipe in puffs.

When I try again, of course the battery is lower now, it sounds less like it wants to start. I'm almost thinking that it needs a full charge on the batteries or it wont start.

I have water and simple green in it presently to start doing a flush. The sludge has drained for over six months so most is out of the engine. What little is still in the engine is still loose and will drip easily.
Would it help to pull start this thing? Its a standard transmission. If I could get it started I could let the alternator do the work.

It was running fine before the work I did. I am open for any suggestions and/or education concerning this.