chevy 350 small block dead

my small block,aT,350,vette,anyway  i've been having a hard time with my starter i had to replace my flywheel to big of job for me so i let the pro's do it here the funny thing of it ,when i came to pick up my car and the lovely bill i could not understand how they replaced the flywheel without taking off my oilpan which my muffler is pressed up on to it but the flywheel was replaced i also noticed when i started my vette it had a hard time starting not in that way but like if i had low battery  but that's not the case,it started with a few turn's but slow,well here's the sad thing i was driving home and out of nowhere a big crunch smoke filled my cab and i almost lost it all, i pulled to the side fast and looked at my tires it felt like the arm gave out on me may drag i thought well hoping, then with me lifting the hood i notice my driver side manafold was red hot and i mean glowing red hot start your cigarette on it i got the fire i knew it was bad well i looked under and yep my oilpan had a 5inch tear right where the bolt is at to change the oil it was oil but soon water came pouring out blown head,i've been reading and feel this might have somethig to do with my repair work i had done 2 day's before,here some more my life suck's i have little over 5000 mile's on this new moter not the block but all the top new, tell me please what you think or anything that might help thanks alot bettyskitty69@aol

 Damn.. it's ee cummings

 First.. what year is your Vette?..  Why would you have to drop the oil pan to replace the flywheel?..  It sounds like you either overheated and threw something out the bottom of the oil pan, or something hit the oil pan.

 What connection do you see to the flywheel replacement? Why did you have to replace the flywheel in the first place?.. Why did you redo the top end of the motor?

 Regards,

 Jim

well i'm sorry i didn't give enough info i own a 78 vette and  the reason i replaced the top motor was the same reason i  think has happen now blown head gasket please give any feedback you might have i thank you for your time and what about the red hot manafold?

The red hot exhaust manifold could be a result of plugged exhaust, or a vacuum leak on the intake.  You should not have blowen a head gasket on that motor.  Check your cooling system.  The block maybe shifted or cracked.  No you don't have to drop the oil pan to change the flywheel.  Sounds like you may have dropped a rod.  The slow cranking may have been a result of water being in a cylinder, eventually filling the cylinder and blowing out the bottom.  What did your temp gauge read?