2012 Tacoma stalling - No help from mechanics - air flow issue?

Hello. Been on here for a while, but this is my first post

I have a 2012 Tacoma PreRunner SR5 TX Edition (4.0L). At about 192k miles.
I'm a construction project manager, so I basically live in my truck. Needless to say I treat it like a work horse.
It recently started stalling out on me, but just right after starting up. It turns over, RPMs hover around 300 for a second but tries to stay on, then stalls out. First couple of times I could take out the air filter and it would stay running normally. I replaced the MAF sensor, but that didn't seem to do it. Usually can't even get it into gear and giving it gas doesn't help either.
It usually happens after my first drive of the day, then I can't get it to stay running for the rest of the day. If it does stay running, it doesn't stall out on me while driving or anything.

I'm handy and can do most things myself if I have the time, but I'm no mechanic. That's why I love this truck so much, it's so easy to work on. I've had it towed over to my local Toyota service (greater Austin, TX surrounding area) twice, where they had it a total of 2 weeks. They weren't able to get it to act up for them so they couldn't figure out what was going on with it. Thats my luck, because the day after I got it back from them it stalled out on me again...

About 4 months ago or so, it had stalled out on me before and had it towed to another (non Toyota) shop near by. This time though, it wouldn't even turn over. It ended up being the fuel pump, so I dropped a big chunk of change to get that replaced.
I'm hesitant to take it back to this shop, because they charged me more than the dealership would have and later found out they screwed over a friend of mine.

(No modifications to the drive train in anyway)

Any help or advise is appreciated! Thanks!

 

Have you cleaned the throttle body? If not I'd start with that.

 

I’ll guess spark plug tube gaskets.

 

I haven't had any experience with this other than reading about it and I don't know if it's on the 2012. Could it be the resistor? It's found near the battery between the headlight assembly and the battery.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions!

• Dm93 - I pulled the throttle body, and that thing was pretty dirty. I had cleaned it a few years ago, so I was hesitant to think that was the issue, but fingers crossed that was it. I've had it running on and off the last couple of days and only had it stall out on me right after putting everything back together. Drove it around today and seemed to do fine (knock on wood). Also, thanks for the links!
• Steves104x4 - Checked the spark plugs and tube gaskets, all seemed to be in good shape. I had changed out the plugs about 6 months ago or so.
• dtaco10 - I did a little looking into the resistor and could only find one on the blower motor for the AC. I don't think this would cause my issue, but I'm going to look into it later on either way as I found that they can burn up over time.

In all my digging around I did unfortunately find that my valve cover gaskets seem to be leaking a little. Found oil build up (no active leak) on the seams in some areas at both covers, so I can see this in my not too distant future. I've done a gasket replacement on a much older chevy truck, but things were a little easier to get to there...

THROTTLE BODY


OIL BUILD UP

 

I had a gen 1 4cyl that started stalling every time soon after cold start, usually at the first stop sign, it would easily restart and go with lots of rev, then after warmed up for the day it was fine.
I tried everything to cure it, went through the entire Engine Control system and nothing would help, Then I paid for a dealer diagnosis and they told me it was relatively low compression in two adjacent cylinders (160 psi instead of 180), but had no clue as to why it would do that, just said it was a known issue
I thought they were crazy so I took it an independent with lots of tacoma experience and they concurred.
I did a head gasket and valves and it cured the stalling.
The independent thought it could be that there is an Idle Air Control module in there that malfunctions without enough vacuum, they said it is very common.
Not sure if it is the same on Gen2 or V6