Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Cleaning throttle body - question

I cleaned out my throttle body last September, and have noticed that the gas pedal is starting to get that "sticky" feeling to it, so I have bought another can of Gumout throttle body cleaner and I'm planning to give it a shot again this evening.

The first time I cleaned it, I had my buddy (who honestly knows squat about cars) sitting in the driver's seat with instructions to "just try and keep it running." Well, it was very difficult for him to keep it running. It stalled out - a lot.

I tried to work the butterfly valve by hand while spraying cleaner into the throttle body, and this made the engine rev up pretty high - more than I'm generally comfortable with. Is that something I should be concerned with?

Any thoughts and insights would be most welcome. Thanks in advance.

take it off, you can do a better job.

Well, I probably only know as much as you do, but there are two things to know here.

1) If you're shooting TB cleaner into the manifold, you don't want to flood it with the stuff. The car should be able to idle on it's own and keep runnning. You want to be sure that the TB cleaner is able to be atomized as it passes though the manifold. If the car is stalling, you're putting to much in, or you're too close. My mechanic had the nozzle a couple inches outside the manifold and sprayed just enough in to keep the car running. The idle will actually rise as the TB cleaner is sprayed in (at least it did on mine.)

2) Like above mentioned, just take off the upper intake manifold ("UIM") (but go buy your gaskets first. There's two of 'em one for each side of the manifold). Use the Valvoline TB Cleaner, and there's also some stuff that foams up inside. A few go overs with the combination of the two has had good results with other people.

Do a seach of the forums. There's plenty of thread about cleaning it. Also, in the FAQ section there is a diagram and explaination for removing the UIM. That should be enought o get you started. But search for the other threads as well. Someone a couple months back had pics of before and after.

All good advice - I'm not about to undertake the task of disassembling the UIM - I'm not that confident in my abilities. I'm comfortable removing the MAF to get directly at the TB, but I'm just don't see myself taking off the UIM.

Good advice about spraying the TB cleaner into the TB - what my problem is, though, is that I remember someone saying in an earlier thread that you need to spray the TB cleaner directly into the inside of the TB - which requires opening the butterfly valve - or else you aren't being thorough.

Can I just leave the car at idle, pull the nozzle of the TB cleaner back a few more inches, and just spray it directly at the closed butterfly valve? Will that achieve the results that I am looking for; i.e., getting a thorough cleaning?

For the record, I'm not blasting/flooding the TB with the cleaner. I give it a 2 or 3 second shot, wait about 10 seconds, give it another 2 or 3 second shot, wait 10 seconds, so on and so forth.

Thanks.

taking off the TB is only 4 more bolts to do (after removing the maf) You don't need a new gasket so long as the one on there is in good shape...which it should be, but you cna pick ont up fro mford if you want just to be sure. There's no way in hell you're going to get the back side of the plate clean, unless you pin the tb open completely, which would mean redlining the car, and spraying for a very long time. Seriously, that stuff needs to be taken off with some elbow grease. I spent a good hour on mine and there's still some carbon that won't come off.

I've cleaned my sticking throttle/butterfly valve twice. Both times I did it while the car was not running. This way, I could open the butterfly all the way open and scrub both sides with a rag and toothbrush. Also, scrub the "lip" or "seat", where the valve rests against the body. It worked like a charm, and the car cranked right up with no problems. BTW, I used the Valvoline cleaner.

Oh, and you don't need to have anyone inside the car reving it up - just grab the throttle linkage with your hand and do it yourself.

Use the bypass towards the firewall, near the IAC. Then ya don't have to shoot through the TB.

I highly recommend you take the throttle body off the car and clean it by hand. Running the engine with all that cleaner junk is bad for the cats, and having chunks of loose carbon getting sucked into the engine is bad news for the engine and can damage valve seats and score cylinder liners.

I'm not trying to shoot anyone down or anything...but if you don't take it off, there's no way in hell you'll get it 100% clean.

I clean my throttle body often. Of the many times I have cleaned it, I have only taken it off once. Yes, you can do a better job with it off, but I don't think the slight difference is enough to matter. I do it with the engine off. Cleaning it with the engine running will not do as good of a job, but it does something else in that it tends to somewhat clean the intake manifold and combustion chambers as well. I agree that cleaning it with the engine running is probably rough on the cats.

Just another opinion.