the only motor that I ever had blow up was in my '96 Blazer and it spun a bearing because of a bad intake gasket.
The motor in my Mustang never blew up and would probably run just fine. The issue was that the fucktard at the shop I took it to for headgaskets didnt get the heads checked out because he thought they looked ok by eye and he misadjusted the valves and one or two of them hit the pistons making the noise I was hearing. The heads were warped to shit and I got them fixed before I sold them.
When they were off we noticed some oil getting past the rings. Nothing serious and most likely just due to having normal wear for 102k. Instead of putting new rings on I decided to get a new shortblock.