does this look like it needs cleaning? *enter smart remarks about "does it look dirty" etc* I've never seen one of these before, so I have nothing to compare it to

 

Yes. and from the picks of your lower intake in the other post, it might be a good idea to look inside the upper intake while it's off and see what you can clear out of it too.

 

how do I clean the throttle body then? do I have to remove it from the upper intake?

 

Yeah - it's only 4 bolts. That way you can get it from the front and the back (and work the butterflies around while you're in there too).

On the upper intake, that will give you another route in as well. Maybe even take the IAC and EGR off so you can knock the crud out around those orifices and flush it all out.

 

the EGR is already off bc I didn't have a large enough open end wrench to loosen the flange nut, any particular product I want to use? am I just spraying something in there and wiping down?

 

Just throttle body cleaner. You can try to get in there with a tooth brush, but probably won't be able to reach everywhere.

 

how do I clean the upper intake manifold? hit it with throttle body cleaner and wipe clean?

 

Put the EGR back on, & use a pipe wrench to break the large nut loose. Keep the wrench tightly engaged w/ the nut & tap the wrench w/ a hammer.

 

the EGR is still connected to the EGR tube. it is disconnected from the intake manifold. if I had a wrench large enough to break that nut it would be off

 

I believe it is a 1 and 1/16 wrench that you need for that nut. I would recommend reattaching it to your intake manifold before you try loosening it, so that it stays in place and you significantly reduce the risk of damaging your EGR pipe. If you think getting that pipe loose at the EGR end is hard, try looseing it where it goes into the exhaust! I'd use liberal amounts of a wd40 type product on the threads and heat the nut with a propane plumbers torch.

As far as cleaning some of the hard to get stuff goes, I'm a bit of an outdoorsman and I like to a broken stick. They are free in the yard in all shapes and sizes, you can cut the end to your liking to get all that ornery junk out of tight corners, you can simply break it for a simple scrubber, and they are so cheap that you wont feel bad about just throwing it out when youre done. Might sound silly, but I find it works great.