2001 Suburban 2500 4×4 throttle body maintenance

This was badly needed maintenance for this truck. I had discovered this one day as I was working on the fuel injectors. When I removed the air filter tubing from the box, I had noticed the outside of the throttle body had signs of grime and that was only the outside! So after I finished the fuel injectors I commenced removing my throttle body housing, starting with electrical connections from the T.P.S. (throttle position sensor) and the idle air control sensor.

Then, removing the throttle linkage, and don’t forget the hose at the bottom for the coolant line. Now before removing the coolant lines, have something like needle nose vise grips or hose pliers to pinch off the line so you won’t lose all the coolant from this line.

 

Now we can finish removing the throttle body. There are four nuts holding this on your intake manifold. These nuts are 10mm and you may need a deep socket for these. I used my 1/4 inch drive ratchet on this one and my 2″ inch extension here also. Once I had mine off the backside of my throttle body it was literally caked with a thick layer of baked-on grime. As a result, I used an engine degreaser spray to begin soaking it because it looked more greasy than varnished.

After it had been soaking for a few minutes, I had brought out my small detail brushes where I was working towards cleaning it but gently, trying not to scratch the walls of the throttle body.  Now that was only the front side. Turning our attention to the inside, where things are ugly. I have to use a carburetor cleaner and the same small detail brushes.

 

Working with my brushes and my cleaner to get every little piece of grime off my butterfly and the walls of the inside, I even have to dig deeper so I pull out a brass detail brush to help me do this job in even finer detail. With each different brush, I use it gets me different results. But it’s the results I am looking for. In the smaller areas, where my detail brushes can’t reach I use a small head toothbrush and a #1 flat tip screwdriver to help me reach into those tight spots with my shop towels, carefully moving it to reach a finer detail of my throttle body.

Now using a screwdriver and a shop towel can be used to catch those little droplets of water or little particles of debris you may have missed while cleaning this part up, Wrapping up this job I do a quick look over to see if I missed anything because I want this to be shiny clean before I reinstall it! Reinstallation is in reverse of removal. I would first start with the two control sensors, your I.A.C. (idle air control) then your T.P.S. (throttle position sensor) connect your electrical plugs for those.  Connect your coolant lines and then connect your throttle cable then your four mounting nuts, then your air filter box tubing give it a start and see how your work turned out!

Victory Cruise!