[odysseus]

I just pulled my TB a few weeks ago to clean it. It's much easier to get behind the throttle plates with it off the car. Also, I found it was dirtiest in the passages that go to the vacuum lines over top of the manifold (that big black plastic stripe). It's not that hard to pull it, and it has two large O-rings (not gaskets) so it's easy to reinstall. I had the intake hoses removed, the electrical connector disconnected, the four bolts holding the TB to the manifold off, cleaned, and back on the car in 30 minutes.

Other than the vacuum passages, my TB was remarkably clean in the throttle bores, even with an oiled cotton filter on for the past 80K miles.

What made a huge difference in idle quality was replacing the Bosch spark plugs with Denso Iridiums. Expensive, but they even change the tone (deeper) of the engine growl at WOT.

That was a two day job! Figuring out how to get my hands to some hidden bolts and pulling everything covering the coil packs was a bear. The actual changing of plugs took all of about 10 minutes. I've got 94K miles on mine.