I've been slam busy at work and haven't gotten around to work on this till recently but here is the long/short. Driving home from work one day and suddenly something sounded like there was a ball bearing bouncing around the engine. I was going about 25mph so I turned down the radio and it kept doing it as I was driving into my hood then the truck began to miss and sputter so backed it up the driveway and there she sat. It sounded bad but I didn't have time to dig in. I figured something broke inside the passenger VC and was bouncing around in there but I pulled off the VC and it was clean. No sludge and lobes looked great. I then went to the other VC and pulled that off thinking that it was something in there. Once again... clean inside, no sludge or anything odd showing on the lobes. Now I am staring at this thing thinking do I now take off the intake manifold and see if it is the knock sensors. Does this sound like knock sensors to you? I can't image its a rod knock or anything but like I said it just happened suddenly. Thoughts??

 

bump

nobody?

drained the coolant and that looked healthy. I would drain oil and drop the pan but its such a PITA to deal with that pan. I was looking for opinions on the knock sensors/wiring/harness since that's the only thing that seemed logical.

 

I had the exact same thing happen to me. Somehow a washer ended up in my cylinder and took out the head cylinder wall and piston. I bought the 4runner usad and dont know its history but im thinking someone dropped it when the head gasket was replaced maybe. The knock sensors are there to correct detonation I believe, they wouldnt cause your problem.