I recently purchased my first Toyota, from my son-in-law. He has had it since new, and never had any problems. It is a 96 Tacoma, 4 wheel drive,5 speed manual tranny, with the larger of the 4 cyl. engines, and it has 80,000 miles. It has been a Florida truck, until I brought it up north. Before I left the south,I changed spark plugs, air filter, and put injector cleaner in two tankfulls of gas. On the 1200 mile trip back, the best mileage I got was 25 mpg. Now that it's up north, I'm getting around 23-25 mpg, at an average speed of 40-50. Is this normal mileage?? The truck runs great, but the exhaust pipe is very black, which to me would indicate the engine is running RICH. Is it ? And if so, what next? No check engine lights either.
Secondly: The engine starts right up when cold and all is well, but if it's warm, it will start right up and then stall. You have to restart it and increase the rpm for a few seconds, then it will idle ok without stalling out. Can anyone shed some light on either of these problems?
One more thing, what service manual would best serve my needs. An actual Toyota factory manual, or the more generic Haines or Chillton. Thanks, Tom