Where do I start?
In the last week or 2 of down time for the truck, I have done the following (Yay for having more than one vehicle while one stays down

)
Cleaned the TB, MAF, and IAC (For MAF/IAC, both the components and the electrical connections)
New TRD TB gasket
WD40 on the moving TB parts
Cleaned the TPS connections on the TB
New Airaid intake that sat in my house for almost a year
New NAPA Gold Air filter
New PCV valve and grommet
02 Sensor
Along the way I:
- Broke one of the TB bolts in the middle by over-torquing when my Ghetto Freight torque wrench decided to click on 3 of the 4 bolts and sheer the 4th to leave it stuck in there. Will return it and get another one per the lifetime warranty.
- Stripped 2 of the IAC bolts that hold the IAC to the TB. After failing with extraction screws and trying as hard as I can with my hand (After PB Blaster and so on), what finally worked was a mini-torch on the bolts for 3 minutes each bolt and notching into the screws with a Dremel so I could use a flat-head. For anyone facing this situation again, just spend $20 and buy a hand impact screw driver before you start and avoid the headache.
- Accidentally loosened the coolant cap during the process (Well, I purposely loosened it for shits and giggles to look inside the radiator, but I guess I didn't tighten it back up properly). Severe coolant leak when everything was back together making me think hell, how did I break the cooling system with the work I did?
- Had white smoke near the exhaust manifold and when coupled with the coolant leak, freaked me the frick out for hours. I seriously thought with such a small job I had broken something serious in the truck. I still don't know what the white smoke was but I know enough from the forums that it wasn't out of the tail pipe and my coolant stayed super clean red so I wasn't worried about a head gasket. I think maybe it was just the system getting used to all the changes I made & the new PCV, the old one was on there since 97.
Anyway, sheer joy occurred when the white smoke stopped and I tightened the cap and cleaned up all the previously spilled coolant with my pressure washer.
She sounds great, revs great, low idle, and I seriously feel like the Airaid adds some good pep in her step. I can't even imagine what a Superchrager or V8 swap would feel like in our 3rd gen.
I have to really shout out and thank [MENTION=66389]BlackWorksInc[/MENTION] as I bothered him a lot on the stripped IAC screws, creating test wires to run off the battery and hit the electrical connections of the IAC to open the valve and spray in there, and other stuff. It really was unnecessary to have the valve open on the IAC and spray in there, but I wanted to learn something along the way in terms of testing it's function and it ended up pretty awesome. What's really stupid and mundane to one person becomes an exciting learning experience for another, and that's the beauty of knowledge
Future headache awaits me on the broken TB bolt.
Hope ya'll enjoyed my update there
Some pics: