Pieces of steel in cylinder??

1. How long were the exhaust headers off?
2. Do you have any little kids around?
3. 8 holes would be a great place to put some BBs, as soon as valve opens they fall in and start getting beat up and flattened.
4. The bent push rod could be dumb luck that one got between valve and piston at the wrong moment

If it was me and I wasn't planning on rebuilding the eng any time soon. I would wire wheel the heads, replace the pushrod, get some new gaskets and put it all back together. Do a compression test, and if all cyl good to ok. Start saving and drive it