I was looking around, and I found a bunch of grime on my throttle body. Is this normal? I took it apart because the whole lid/maf assembly was a bit wobbly, and when I tried to put it back on, the bottom part of the bellows seemed to be pinched a bit, leaving a small opening on the bottom.



I reattached everything, and it seemed to fit better now, without any slits/openings. Should I take it apart and make it all shiney? How safe is it for a mechanical idiot to clean the throttlebody? What should I use? Would any generic degreaser and a rag do?

sorry for being a mechanical idiot,
Marcin

....you might as well clean it while in there, but it looks normal to me...mine...older LT1...was GROSS!

Normal. That's carbon build up from egr gas. You get it on dry intake manifolds.

The other problem is that the LS1 was carefully designed to spray motor oil into the intake manifold right behind the throttle body (through the PCV system The oil carries some sludge with it, and also collects grime from the EGR system.

Sea Foam will soften it enough to wipe off with a rag. Don't use anything stronger or anything containing silicone, though.