Tacoma Dude

Okay okay... now we're getting somewhere!

TPS - where do I find it? I'll consult my Haynes manual but it's not in the index so it may take some hunting.

O2 sensor - I'm assuming that I can use electrical contact cleaner? Or should I go with carb/throttle body cleaner and use some q-tips?

Sparkplugs - I have some Densos on the way but wanted to run the Seafoam stuff first. I'm REALLY having a hard time locating this stuff in San Diego county!

Thanks F451!!!
This is the type of answer I've been looking for!

PirateFins

The TPS is located on the drivers side of the intake plenum, mine is black and say's "Denso" on it, it is round to rectangle (where the wire connector plugs in). In a straight line perpendicular to the plenum is ...on the pass. side of the plenum is the big spring with the throttle cable attached to it, inside plenum is the butterfly, drivers side is TPS.

Hope that helps.
Brad

grams72

Anyone thought about just plain moisture that is washing down the exhaust?

I would rule out the exhaust system, if you replace it you before you figure out the problem you will just mess it up by what ever is getting pushed through the pipe.

Put your hand at the end of the exhause pipe, have it loogie on your hand and see what it smells like.

report back and we will see what we can come up with.

Tacoma Dude

Brad:
Thanks - I actually found out the TPS location looking into the Haynes a little more carefully but you're description is going to be a bit more helpful.

grams72:
It's carbon and water. It used to smell like I was running rich but since the exhaust repair I'm not smelling that as much. For the moment it's just water and carbon flakes.

PirateFins

Ok this might be reassuring. The goal of the cat converter is to take the "nasty" emmisions and turn them into water vapor. You had an exhaust leak for a while that was not allowing the rest of the exhaust system to come up to full temp / flow and pass everything out. Now that your leak is fixed your cat is semi (notice I said might earlier) functioning. It is taking the emmisions and creating water, but is not getting hot enought to make vapor. The gas flow is pushing the water out of the system at which point it is collecting the carbon build-up from the previous leaky condition. I don't think it is that big a deal other than I think you need a new cat. I had alot of water comming out of my pipe that was with blackish stuff (carbon) just like you are describing, until I have recently replaced the cat (water on Fri. / sat=new cat no water).
Hope that helps some,
Brad