A little history - a couple months ago truck started mainly idling rough and lasted a couple days. I filled my tank and problem went away for a week or so, and came back again. A week ago I changed oil/filter and plugs/wires. Then the rough idle was compounded with knocking/pinging. I cleaned the EGR valve yesterday, but still have the knock.
This truck only travels 1 mile to and from work daily and sometimes that is all its driven in the course of a day. I have never had any engine problems before these issues surfaced. Engine has never gotten hot and only has 85,500 mi.
Anyone have any ideas? I hate to keep spending on items such as knock sensor, egr valve and etc. if something more serious is wrong.
I was initially going to ask you to be a bit more specific,
with your description.
But you seem to have provided part of if not most of your problem in the above post...
Running any engine for short stop/start journeys
will put more wear and tear on it than one used continually on the highway and run for 50plus miles each journey.
Your engine could well be worn out internally.
The engine may have a lot of internal corrosion (due to condensation build-up) and be pretty well gummed-up and carboned up.
Especially if the oil changes haven't been very regular (about 3 to 5,000 miles for short trip use engines along with regular use of special flushing oil).
You don't mention if it's fuel injected and whether it's running a closed-loop system.
If it is, the O2 sensors could cause the problems you mention (rough idle) and the KR sensors may be faulty too.
Faulty KR sensors don't cause detonation, the timing gets retarded when they fail so the engine suffers a general lack of power.
The fuel injectors may well be gummed-up too.
Also the maf-sensor (and TB IAC motor) would probably need a clean-up with special solvents also.