07 4.7 V8 engine knocking

A couple months my daughter 4runner ran fine one day, it sat for 2 days and on the 3rd day she started it up to go to work and it had a horrible knock and the knocking sped up while pushing the gas.
I’ve been messing with it here and there as I am not a mechanic and no garage to really dig in to it.
I did remove the valve covers and spark plugs. Drivers side valve cover had thick sludge and one spark plug was unusually clean.
So I replaced the ignition coils with new and new spark plugs. Still has the knock.

 

How fresh is the oil and is it 5w30, or thinner? How many miles are on the truck?

 

It was at the end of the oil life cycle. Oil levels were good. I always put the correct oil in and actually use high mileage oil. There’s roughly 203k

 

Are you in a higher humidity part of the country that gets below freezing in the winter months?

 

Sludge is not good. There are lots of oil passageways inside the engine that may have been clogged and perhaps starved oil flow to critical internal components.
Does the engine has a history of using conventional engine oil or synthetic engine oil?
I suggest investigating de-sludging the engine.
There are additives you can put in the engine and run it for hours, days or longer depending on the product. Seafoam is a product I have used on a long neglected rarely serviced aluminum GM V8 engine run on conventional oil even though synthetic was required by manufacturer.
It rapidly turned new engine oil black with dissolved sludge.
With luck your knock might lessen.