Update to the following I posted at the end of July which did not have any responses...

July Post
"This past week I started hearing a sound up front that sounded like something in the heads tinging around. I only hear it at low RPMs under load but once I get about 1800 RPM it goes away. At the same time I got a P0420 code for bank 1 Cat which is around where I thought I heard the sound so thought it was possibly a rattle from there. I took it to my mechanic who said I will need a new timing chain done which would be $4200 as I had him quote Ford OEM parts only. Truck has 183k miles on it. I have had this truck since it was brand new and do regular oil changes on it every 5-7k miles. I did have the return heater core coolant line blow out on me a few months ago, the 90 degree hard plastic fitting completely blew out on it, where it got ran hot for a few before I could get over in Houston traffic but that is the only issue I have really had with this truck.

I am going to get another opinion and then possibly a 3rd at the dealership before deciding to fix it but curious if this happens on these 5.0 with these miles on it.
I only ever really hear about this issue with the EcoBoost engines..."

Today
I am the only owner of this truck that has 185k miles on it and it has never been in the shop until now.
I ended up letting the shop do the timing work which did nothing to fix the problem. They offered to reverse the work for free or I could keep the parts, where they would eat half, and I also would not be charged for labor which I took them up on.
After the timing was done I went in to see the truck, as we were discussing some next steps in diagnostics, when they told me about the ticking noise that was happening.
I don't ever remember it having a ticking noise before.
I let them keep the truck 2 weeks longer for diagnostics on both issues to which they came up empty and I took the truck back after realizing they were not going to figure it out.
Also, they quoted me $7800 to remove the heads, get them machined and replace lifters, rockers, valves as they said I have a bad lifter but they never removed the valve covers I don't believe.
After taking it back, I ended up driving the truck 150 miles in town the next week to put some miles on it as I had put my SCT tune back to stock and wanted to get the relearning process done before taking it to the next mechanic.

The next mechanic just finished diagnosing the problems.
He found that the Torque Converter needs a rebuild or replacement which is the cause of the original issue the last mechanic said was timing.
He dropped the oil pan and found that #3 cylinder had spun a rod bearing, pic attached...no visible damage to the crank or inside of bearing that could be seen with naked eye, and he stopped there and said I would need a rebuild or a new engine.
He also advised that he did not see any metal shavings in the pan but did find some gasket maker in the oil pickup tube filter but it was just a few small beads of it from when they did the timing.

My question is if the first shop didn't dial in the timing correctly and they started up the truck could that have resulted in the spun bearing or no?

The first shop has been good to me in the past 4 years of going to them, even have given me free hours before, but it has been regular maintenance stuff no in depth dianostics like this.
I dont know if it is negligence or done to scam me or covering their ***. I could also be completely wrong about this as well though.
Just weird how a shop that does full tear downs and builds dont think to take off valve covers and drop oil pans to find a ticking or knock sound with all the other weird stuff.

 

Timing being off wouldn’t cause it to spin a bearing. If oil flow was restricted due to gumming up the oil pickup or it wasn’t reinstalled correctly oil flow could be hurt.

 

Thank you DSG. I just wanted to make sure I didn't need to have further conversations with my first mechanic on this failure.
Another question I have is it seems from looking around the best option for another engine would be Powersource Engines looking at people's reviews and BBB.
I will be calling them on Monday to make sure they only use OEM parts, not OEM equivalent, in the entire engine but I want to make sure that all improved engineering since 2012 has been implemented as well in their builds.
Is there anything other than the upgraded valves I need to check with them on?