Ticking noise - torque converter, lifters, something else?

That looks pretty normal for a truck of that age.
My 07’ even has the “black” stuff starting to build up under the bottom edges of the Valve Covers.

As for the bolt, leave it alone if you don’t see a leak close to it. (I don’t see one in your picture)
It’s already “smashed”, you’ll have to smash it just as much to get it “tight” if you try to retorque it.

 

Brake fluid is not volatile, but it's flammable so don't use it on exhaust etc. Soapy water would work.

To keep track we're chasing a high idle and a "ticking noise."

An exhaust leak isn't visible unless the exhaust is visible coming out of the tailpipe - no magic happens in the cats or muffler to make smoke disappear. Exhaust leaks often make a ticking sound, but you've got to (imo) probably fix your high idle first.

At this point, however you've seem to have analysis paralysis. Which I mean by saying until you start removing variables, you've entered a world of maybe's that could be never ending. If you can fix your high idle it will be a lot easier to find the ticking noise.

Another thing you can do with a scan tool is check things like air to fuel (AFR) ratio, MAF sensor input, etc. and help to see if your fuel trims are way off or on the money which either can help somewhat, greatly, or not at all from situation to situation.

@ABA180 standalones like Ultragauge and Scangauge are convenient to leave hooked up to display engine temp, mpg, etc. The 2 real benefits of a phone app / dongle are the live graphs / quickly accessed wealth of info (10-15 parameters on a screen minimum at a time on my app) which means the ability to screen shot data on a phone or save graphs and then the ease of using a touch screen vs. a tiny monochromatic screen w/ buttons. Standalones are cool for sure however.

@treyus30 Unfortunately Torque isn't available for iOS and based on what I've found looking at bluetooth dongles on Amazon it looks like most lower tier priced units use WIFI for it. I'm guessing less sophisticated programming is needed for WIFI being used with iOS than bluetooth.

 

I'll literally ship you a free android phone

 

Lol yeah my wife has a couple but what I have just works so well I’ll keep it until I mount a tablet in the project truck and run torque or some other app full time on the dash.

 

Ha-ha! Ok. Well humor me. Oh, & it’s not that I have no exhaust smoke. I’ve been patching the cc flanges for a while now. I keep up on them pretty well, but sometimes they get the better of me.

As I mentioned somewhere, I would have expected to be driving around with a gray cloud following me if I had an exhaust manifold leak. Would a small leak be as obvious (smoke, noise), yet still cause performance issues?
& I realize we want the idle down. I guess this was my methodical way of eliminating a leak as a culprit.

So here’s the humor me part. I was yet again fighting with a fitting on the passenger side (Think I won) & facing this flange.

Anyway, I may not have paid enough attention to this one this morning even though it’s what caught my eye to start with. The stuff in the 2nd pic is dusty. On my finger it looks gray. I can stick a piece of a biz card in a little over 1/4 in. 3/10 to be precise.
I couldn’t start the truck to recheck because I had done a repatch on the flanges & it needs to cure….

So I am going to post these & then start looking at the suggestions for scanners.

 

What hose is this, is it coming from the "Y" at the back of the engine? This is where I'd begin - unlikely pinching a hose and getting a normal idle would have any relation to a massive exhaust leak causing a high idle somehow.

 

What about car scanner elm obd2?

https://www.carscanner.info/

 

Software only. You'll need a physical OBD2 sending unit that plugs into your OBD2 port.

 

yes. Going back to the y. I read about doing this in the FSM, although their instructions included doing more. Anyway, for the heck of it I pinched it & the idle dropped to a respectable 750.... No idea where to take it from there. The FSM mentions pipe & injectors.

 

Right. But wouldn't I need that with any of the software ones mentioned?

 

Yeah - software is of course easy to start using since it's a 1 min install if you have a dongle. Interesting that the advice on that site says stay away from low price dongles, lol. If I was working on a luxury vehicle from the last 10 years there's no way I'd use the cheap ones too, but on something 20 years old using a late 80's era tech non-programmable on board computer, not that important.

 

Same thing occurred to me....
I just got hooked by it because it's bluetooth compatible with IOS & it seems as though y'all were saying this was hard to come by.

 

20 mins later.... so am I to take it that pinching off this hose should not have resulted in a drop in idle?

 

Vacuum leaks can be detected by reading and interpreting fuel trim values, the kind of leaks most likely not large enough to set a DTC. BUt large enough to create a drivability concern. Once you invest into a proper OBD scanner rather it be a blue tooth and APP enabled, or a plug in scanner type will change a lot of guess work with diagnosing potential problems.

Whatever bluetooth dongle you choose to purchase if you ever do should be bluetooth version 4.0 and higher. Unfortunately, I found a few of the Elm327 dongles advertise a version 1.7 and higher which is totally incorrect and was incompatible with some of the Paid For Features of my Fusion APP. I've had good luck with the Veepeak version 4.0 for reference. I'd say a decent plug n scanner over a blue tooth and APP scanner if it came down to one or the other.

 

Right. You shouldn’t have any change in idle. Air should be moving away from the intake through that hose, not entering into the throttle body. Here’s a check valve supercharger installs use to keep air entering the IAC. Start just before 51 min here:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7RmHXvEQwXs

It could be that your either getting a vacuum leak in the line or positive pressure’s pushing through it into the IAC which isn’t supposed to be happening. You could clamp it and drive down around the block to see if your power returns. You wouldn’t want to drive for longer than that with it clamped.

Am I thinking about this right @mechanicjon ?

 

I looked up the dlc3 connectors in the FSM instructions. I figured since the test is supposed to make the idle drop, maybe there was something to work with. TC as far as I can tell is turbocharge. So that must be just in case you have it, it takes it out of the pic? But what is cg? I didn't see it in the list....

& thank you for the lesson. So much better when I understand the whys & hows....

 

Hmmmm.... Decisions, decisions.... Since it can take me forever to predict the future, maybe I'll order one of each from Amazon tomorrow (later today) & then return one....

 

Reading through that FSM page



3a Specifies that the idle speed is normal (not the case for you)

3b-d TC and CG are wires that a SST or Special Service Tool (which looks like a jumper wire with possibly a resistor or something wired in line with it) which is supposed to bridge or connect to one another that will raise the idle. I do not know what the acronyms stand for besides simply callouts for the wires and can definitely say TC is not turbo charge because there’s never been a street legal turbo charged Tacoma from the factory.



3e-h It looks like with TC and CG bridged the idle should go below 500 with the air hose blocked. I don't know if there's a resistor or not in that bridging tool and since you're not bridging the wires afaik, at this point I'm not sure if you're experiencing normal behavior with the idle dropping to "normal speeds" when clamping that hose. While my engine's out at the moment, my wife has a 97 with the same setup that I can try to check what you've been doing with. I'm not sure that you're carrying out these procedures accurately.

Two questions.

1. Is this a sudden problem that cropped up immediately or gradually?
2. Have you opened up the IAC?

 

Had to look it up - TC I believe is timing check & CG is chassis ground
& I am not doing any bridging. What happened was I was checking the IAC using the FSM. I got to this point in the testing. Not having the tool to bridge, I, basically for ha-ha's, pinched the hose. Idle dropped.

So quick version, I hope....
I have had on & off idling/roughness/high/low issues.
Timing stuff done a few years ago - ran good for ? (awhile. It gets blurry)
Fast forward to this past june. Cleaned everything down into the intake manifold, new gaskets, injectors, etc. Ran good.
At some point ?, idle got low?. Checked IAC. Stuck closed. Installed a new one. Ran ok.
About a month ago, I think is when the ticking, loping idle came to my attention.
Removed the IAC & tested it. It passed. I had also noticed some carbon on the newly painted plenum seal, so as precaution, changed out the gaskets again. Whilst I was doing that, I installed a temp sender. This, along with the sensor, had been recommended by TW folks at the time of cleaning in June. A "while you're in there" kinda thing. For some reason I didn't, so figured I'd do it now.
& here is where it all begins, or this leg of the journey. Because when I started the truck it sounded like it was gong to take off. & this is why I was focused on the temp sender (I have a thread started on testing it), which I now realize has nothing to do with idle....
A couple days later I did the coolant temp sensor, so I know this had nothing to do with the idle.
However, after I did that, the cel came on indicating an IAC related issue.
This is how we arrive at present day FSM pinching hoses & IAC checks.
However, plot thickens - I disc the battery, reconnected after 10+, disconnected the IAC & started the truck. cel came on. (Don't know what it was since I couldn't drive to the local parts store). This is where having my own woulda really helped, because.... I disconnected the battery again. reconnected, removed & plugged the hose & had the IAC unplugged. Started the truck & guess what? No cel. It was a comedy of errors actually because I meant to have the IAC plugged in. I have had it running here & there & still no light.
I did look at the rpm's yesterday. (MY son has been in the drivers seat whilst I have been video taping, etc). I do believe that at some point between my IAC cel not returning & yesterday, the idle dropped by 100. It was a pinch over 1100 & now is a pinch over 1000. I do realize things take time to sink in to the ECU.
Ok- so things that changed a month ago (high idle time)
Plenum gaskets
Temp sender

Temp sensor came later

so, obviously not a simple answer to your 1st question - the tick & high idle are new. Idle issues are not new.
& yes. Iac has been opened

& I apologize if this is messy. I wanted to respond & not do my short story long kristi thing. For one, I am clenching because I get antsy if I'm not being productive, especially with so much to do.... (Will I ever take my truck on a leisurely fun trip again? I was hoping by the spring.... play in the mud…. Not a question for you. Just sometimes it is starting to feel that way.) Anyway, I pounded that description out. Like I stated, blurry. Even all the suspension stuff gets blurry. Its also troubling to look back on it all because I am really hard on myself & I start to think abut how incompetent I am, so I try to stay present....

 

On the gauge end, ultra gauge is now 80.00 & some change. The 60.00 model is not available anymore. This is what I was hoping to get for that type.
Still worth trying? Although not available on Amazon. Easy returns if I like the other kind better.