Why you, yes YOU, need to clean your throttle body
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3rd Gen Ram Moderator
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 1,596
Likes: 16
From: Cádiz, Spain
Why you, yes YOU, need to clean your throttle body
Here's what an 82,XXX mile throttle body looks like:
Not so bad, but, check it out from the back. You know, the side your engine sees...:
And the intake port, itself:
That's less than 100K, folks. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I'd say about half of those have been highway miles, cruising around 2K rpm. Thats disgusting. It makes me scared thinking about how the insides of the cylinders and lifters must look. Hopefully they aren't that gunked up.
After cleaning:
As far as I dared stick my hand and rag in there:
I didn't want to spray anything down in there, so I dampened a rag with some cleaner and then scrubbed around as best I could. I'm not exactly mobile up under the hood, so that's the best angles I could get. I let it dry out for about 20 minutes while I messed around with some other stuff, and then put it all back together. I promptly threw a CEL when I started it up. Don't forget to double check all your connections. Even though I swore I did, I guess I forgot to plug the IAT sensor back in. Easy fix, thankfully. The hardest part was getting the damn Hemi hat bolted back in correctly.
It is super simple to do: (2) 10mm bolts hold the Hemi hat on (even easier if you already have a CAI), (4) 8mm bolts hold the throttle body on. Don't forget to disconnect the Intake Air Temp sensor when you remove the hat, and the sensor on the throttle body, itself. Reverse the process to put it all back together. Took about 30-40 minutes, including cleaning, and that was because it was my first time doing it. Next time it will probably be about 10 minutes shorter, if not more.
Don't neglect this easy bit of maintenance. It's probably easier than changing your oil.
Not so bad, but, check it out from the back. You know, the side your engine sees...:
And the intake port, itself:
That's less than 100K, folks. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I'd say about half of those have been highway miles, cruising around 2K rpm. Thats disgusting. It makes me scared thinking about how the insides of the cylinders and lifters must look. Hopefully they aren't that gunked up.
After cleaning:
As far as I dared stick my hand and rag in there:
I didn't want to spray anything down in there, so I dampened a rag with some cleaner and then scrubbed around as best I could. I'm not exactly mobile up under the hood, so that's the best angles I could get. I let it dry out for about 20 minutes while I messed around with some other stuff, and then put it all back together. I promptly threw a CEL when I started it up. Don't forget to double check all your connections. Even though I swore I did, I guess I forgot to plug the IAT sensor back in. Easy fix, thankfully. The hardest part was getting the damn Hemi hat bolted back in correctly.
It is super simple to do: (2) 10mm bolts hold the Hemi hat on (even easier if you already have a CAI), (4) 8mm bolts hold the throttle body on. Don't forget to disconnect the Intake Air Temp sensor when you remove the hat, and the sensor on the throttle body, itself. Reverse the process to put it all back together. Took about 30-40 minutes, including cleaning, and that was because it was my first time doing it. Next time it will probably be about 10 minutes shorter, if not more.
Don't neglect this easy bit of maintenance. It's probably easier than changing your oil.
Champion
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 4,702
Likes: 2
From: N. Florida
Here's what an 82,XXX mile throttle body looks like:
Not so bad, but, check it out from the back. You know, the side your engine sees...:
And the intake port, itself:
That's less than 100K, folks. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I'd say about half of those have been highway miles, cruising around 2K rpm. Thats disgusting. It makes me scared thinking about how the insides of the cylinders and lifters must look. Hopefully they aren't that gunked up.
After cleaning:
As far as I dared stick my hand and rag in there:
I didn't want to spray anything down in there, so I dampened a rag with some cleaner and then scrubbed around as best I could. I'm not exactly mobile up under the hood, so that's the best angles I could get. I let it dry out for about 20 minutes while I messed around with some other stuff, and then put it all back together. I promptly threw a CEL when I started it up. Don't forget to double check all your connections. Even though I swore I did, I guess I forgot to plug the IAT sensor back in. Easy fix, thankfully. The hardest part was getting the damn Hemi hat bolted back in correctly.
It is super simple to do: (2) 10mm bolts hold the Hemi hat on (even easier if you already have a CAI), (4) 8mm bolts hold the throttle body on. Don't forget to disconnect the Intake Air Temp sensor when you remove the hat, and the sensor on the throttle body, itself. Reverse the process to put it all back together. Took about 30-40 minutes, including cleaning, and that was because it was my first time doing it. Next time it will probably be about 10 minutes shorter, if not more.
Don't neglect this easy bit of maintenance. It's probably easier than changing your oil.
Not so bad, but, check it out from the back. You know, the side your engine sees...:
And the intake port, itself:
That's less than 100K, folks. I don't know if it has anything to do with it, but I'd say about half of those have been highway miles, cruising around 2K rpm. Thats disgusting. It makes me scared thinking about how the insides of the cylinders and lifters must look. Hopefully they aren't that gunked up.
After cleaning:
As far as I dared stick my hand and rag in there:
I didn't want to spray anything down in there, so I dampened a rag with some cleaner and then scrubbed around as best I could. I'm not exactly mobile up under the hood, so that's the best angles I could get. I let it dry out for about 20 minutes while I messed around with some other stuff, and then put it all back together. I promptly threw a CEL when I started it up. Don't forget to double check all your connections. Even though I swore I did, I guess I forgot to plug the IAT sensor back in. Easy fix, thankfully. The hardest part was getting the damn Hemi hat bolted back in correctly.
It is super simple to do: (2) 10mm bolts hold the Hemi hat on (even easier if you already have a CAI), (4) 8mm bolts hold the throttle body on. Don't forget to disconnect the Intake Air Temp sensor when you remove the hat, and the sensor on the throttle body, itself. Reverse the process to put it all back together. Took about 30-40 minutes, including cleaning, and that was because it was my first time doing it. Next time it will probably be about 10 minutes shorter, if not more.
Don't neglect this easy bit of maintenance. It's probably easier than changing your oil.
I have to admit mine was pretty funky this morning, throttle response is back to where it should be
