So, did you take your tb off to clean it? Can you leave it on and just spray some carb cleaner on it? I want to clean my IAC and MAF. Maybe I will clean all three things this weekend.

 

Can someone give me instructions for the 3L Vulcan, I never done this before and need some help.

 

Did it look real dirty or did you just clean it to see what would happen?

 

Step 1: Take off intake tube
Step 2a: Spray intake cleaner on throttle body
Step 2b(optional): Take IAC valve off and spray with valve and ports with intake cleaner
Step 3: Wipe clean. Repeat steps 2 and 3 if necessary.
Step 4: Put everything back on.

 

I don't even know what possessed me to even look. I was bored. Simply pulling the tube off and hosing it down from the outside is not adequate and forces the crap and cleaner deeper into the intake. You are only half-*** cleaning half of the throttle body doing that and your wasting your time. However the IAC is good thing to clean too. I already did that a few months ago so I didn't bother yesterday.

Matt's guide to cleaning the throttle body in 10 easy steps:

(1) Loosen hose clamp where the intake hose meets the throttle body. Unplug the MAG electrical connector and the crank case vent from the intake hose.

(2) Pull the intake hose off the throttle body and unlatch it from the air cleaner box. Put it off to the side out of the way. Look in the throttle body, you will see it caked full of black dirt and oily residue. Its nasty, don't wear nice clothing.

(3) Unplug the wire from the throttle position sensor on the side of the throttle body. Loosen and remove the two philips head screws holding it on. Place it aside.

(4) The throttle cable is pretty obvious on how to unhook it from the throttle body. Lift and slide off to the side like a bicycle brake caliper. If you have cruise control, you just pull back on the connection and it will snap off (yes, it snaps back on too). Disconnect both of them.

(5) The throttle body is held onto the intake manifold with (4) 5/16" bolts. Loosen, remove and don't lose the bolts. The throttle body will come off in your hands. Don't drop it.

(6) Now that you have it off the truck it is time to clean it. The most logical cleaning solution is throttle body cleaner (duh). I didn't have any so I just used an ether based spray can of starter fluid. Do not smoke, toke, grind metal, or launch fireworks while using any of these cleaners.

(7) Spray it in and let it soak, dump it out. Do the same on the other side. Spray some more and work the throttle plate open and closed. Spray some more and use some paper towels or shop rags to wipe it out. You'll probably need to do a lot of spraying and wiping.

(8) The tricky part is cleaning the throttle plate. You have to hold it open. With the throttle plate held open, clean the plate, the edges of the plate, and the throttle body around where the plate closes. It can be really caked full of crap around there since it is choke point for the air flow. It is pain in the *** to do while holding it open. Wedge it on something or have someone hold it for you.

(9) Spray some more around the exterior linkage and clean that up nice.

(10) Make sure the whole thing is clean, dry and free of loose crap, bits of towel, torn skin, or dried blood.

Work backwards from step (5) to reassemble. Make sure you plug all the stuff back in and reattach that crankcase vent. Start the engine. If it will not start, runs like crap, or throws a rod through the hood, then you obviously can't follow simple directions and ya done f*$ked up. I take no responsibility, award you no points, and may god have mercy on your soul.

If it does work, go inside and pour yourself a nice cold glass of spiked ice tea.

 

If you are going to get that into it then take the whole damn engine apart and clean every piece. I cleaned front and back with the throttle body still in the truck.

 

Yea that makes sense. Remove four bolts to do it right is now comparable to tearing down the engine. If you want to do it the lazy way, knock yourself out. But don't make stupid senseless excuses to save face.

 

I didn't make stupid senseless excuses. I didn't pull the throttle body off and I cleaned it out just fine. But according to you its half assed even though my method worked just fine.

 

ok.

 

You all rock, I love spiked Ice tea and my TB is a clean machine! I did it drunk too!

My truck now runs like a proverbial Singer Sewing Machine!

 

YES! I'm tellin you, Arizona Lite Ice Tea is dirt cheap and sold by the gallon at our grocery store. I buy like 4 gallons when i go shopping. A little rasberry smirnoff and ooh heaven.

And oh yea, throttle body cleaning FTW!

 

Thanks for the write-up Matt. Very nice. Gonna do this on Saturday when I get some time with the truck. I love the thing that you added in about not to smoke, toke, grind metal, or launch fireworks. Haha.

 

Cleaning the TB while on the truck is not a good idea IMO, any extra gunk released from the surface but not picked up my a towel or whatever will be sucked into the engine, thus negating all "cleaning" done. More of a relocation of crap and possibly explosive cleaning juice.

 

I did this today at 94,000km. It was a lot easier then I thought. I didn't need the instructions it was simple enough once I was looking at the motor. It wasn't very dirty but I cleaned it anyway, same with the IAC, and to my suprise it made a big difference. It idles a lot smoother and the throttle responce is dead on now. It use to be nothing.. nothing... Vroom. Now its an instant VRrrrRrOoooOoo0000Mmmm!!! lol

 

I did the one on my focus at 145,000 and what a difference.

 

just did mine. not much of a difference and now its shifting real hard.

 

So a Seafoam or Motorcraft equivalent treatment will take care of that.

 

More excuses....

 

x2 on the seafoam

 

got my own cleaned out today - it definitely smoothed out the idle, sitting at a good speed - actually it raised the idle a bit by about 200-300 rpms - I might go ahead and change the idle down a bit to what it was before.. feels a little high for me right now.

 

So just ignore that sticker that says "do not clean inside of throttle body or adjust hard stop screw, special coating on throttle plate and bore" ?
Do you SOHC guys have this sticker too?

 

Not on my 03.

 

No such sticker on m 2003 4.0

 

Nope - nothin there for myself either :-)

I was about to adjust my throttle but almost completely forgot that its all computer driven - so it is where it is on anything computer controlled.. need a tuner to adjust the idle now *sigh*

 

Its a good thing I saw this thread I'm getting ready for a tear down to the lower intake for cleaning painting and stopping the leaks.(my head gaskets were done within 10k but dad wasn't in the mood to clean it up.

what I wonder is if cleaning the throttle body makes that much of a difference what about the upper and lower intake...and how would I clean it out?