Truck making a funny noise

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I drive a 2004 Toyota Tacoma 4x4 and wound up doing a bit of unexpected rock crawling on a recent camping trip. After a whole lot of cussing and praying I got out with a couple of dents. Since then, I started to notice a strange noise. When I shift from 2nd to 3rd (~2500 rpm) and start to accelerate, I hear a metallic grinding/pinging for roughly a second. The clutch is fully released and it happens whether or not the engine is hot. Any ideas?

If it helps, it’s the 2.7 liter 4 cylinder. Despite it’s flaws, I love my little truck so hopefully y’all can help.

2

On mine I had some weird metallic noise that showed up only at certain speeds. After some looking around, I found that one of the heat shields and the skidplate was loose. They were resonating at a very narrow band of engine speed. It sounded nasty but was easily fixed.
Look under the truck and poke around to see if it is something similar.

"Despite its flaws?"
What’s wrong with a 'Coma? They are maybe a bit underpowered but great little trucks.