Blew head gasket while hoisting engine?

[ChevyHeaven]

I hoisted the engine on the exhaust manifold bolts as I've done many times when I heard a slight compression hiss followed by a mixture of oil and coolant pissing out of the water pump. Could I have seriously blown the gasket or damaged the heads simply from hoisting the engine on the exhaust bolts? Sounds ridiculous but I saw it happen.
Pulled off the water pump, timing cover looks fine and water pump had a bit of oil sitting at the bottom but the inside of it looked clean.
I couldnt be more puzzled, any comments or ideas on the topic?

 

[pontiacgp]

there are 16 - 7/16 bolts in each head, in my vortec intake there are in total of 8 - 5/16 bolts torqued at 11 lbs. I lift the engine with the engine plate and never broke the intake bolts so I don't see how you caused any damage lifting your engine out

 

[stony7933]

is it possible that you may have had a slight stress fracture in the head around that area of that bolt and the lifting of a whole motor made that stress fracture a actual crack.... that does sound possible

 

[ChevyHeaven]

Defiantly a head scratcher but I know what I saw. Any wild theories? Plan on replacing the head gasket and moving forward. Still seems really strange.

 

[ChevyHeaven]

That's sorta what I was thinking, I couldn't spot any physical cracks but it would make sense, definatly odd. Luckily I already have a reconditioned set of heads for the motor I planned on using anyway.
As long as all the damage is in the heads and not the block I should be safe.

 

[stony7933]

I would have that head magnafluxed before you put it back on

 

[565bbchevy]

I would have that head magnafluxed before you put it back on

Regardless if you are going to use a different set of heads or not I would do this regardless unless there is a visible crack when you remove the old head
and if there is not one visible there my be some telltale signs on the gasket itself where the pressure escaped to give you an indication of where to look on the head.
You just want to be certain you have resolved any issues before reassembly, you never want to assume it was something without verifying it.

 

[ChevyHeaven]

Not a bad idea.
As for now I thinkin swapping the heads and gasket is my best bet.
I mean what else could it really be? I know my luck isn't the greatest but even I can't imagine damaging anything other than the heads.