Hey guys, I will do my best to keep this short. I have a 1999 F-350 7.3 with 175K on it. I'm a Marine currently stationed at NAS Pensacola, previously stationed in NC. While I was in NC, I was forced into rebuilding my engine after I investigated it running rough and found that my 7th cylinders glow plug had shot out of the head but dropped the filament tip down into the cylinder. The piston was chewed and there was a vertical scratch in the cylinder wall. After lifting the cab and pulling the right side head, I noticed that the 5th piston was cracked. Then once we pulled the left head, that whole bank had cracked pistons. All the cracks were right around the rim of the bowl. I sent the head off to a local CARQUEST Machine Shop who oversized the cylinders .020, installed new freeze plugs, cam shaft bushings, and repaired the seat of the valves on #7 cylinder. They said the heads were fine. Once I got it back, buttoned it all together following all the torque specs, adding all new bushings, seals, and assembly lube.
Fast forward 2k miles later after moving down to FL, the truck is running horribly. We'll start with the leaks.. the freeze plugs are already seeping, and its losing about 2 quarts every 3 weeks. My temperatures seem to be higher than they were before, mainly my EGT's and Trans temps. There's a knock that you can feel on the floorboards, I feel like its from the trans, but also an intermittent knock in the engine. All together, its lacking the power that it used to have, and really hurts me to drive it.
At this point I really just want to get it back to health and let professionals do it. I've had a bad experience on the way down from NC with Ford so I don't want to take it to a dealership. Does anybody know any reliable, trustworthy, experienced shops that are within 5 hours/ 250 miles from Pensacola, FL? I was going to take it to Bill Hewitt from Powerstrokehelp.com but have seen a lot of negative stuff on this forum about him. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

 

I think Mark K has a transmission shop in Florida if I remember correctly. Might try and get in touch with him as a good place to start.

I think it's a good idea you avoid Bill the powerstroke help guy.

Semper Fi.