I cleaned the throttle body on my truck today. Quick and easy, worth doing. There was a writeup on the 4X4 wire board a while back about this, and that writeup also involved cleaning the MAF. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that writeup was for 99+ 3rd gens. My writeup is based on what I did on my 96 with the 3.4L. I suspect the same process could be used on all 96-98 3.4s.

After the cleaning, my truck does seem to be a bit more responsive, but some of that might be psychological. The difference is very similar to the difference I felt (or thought I felt) when I did the deckplate mod. I've only run about 40 miles, so I can't say if it will affect my gas mileage at all.

Here's the writeup.

 

man, i would strongly reccommend spraying a rag with carb cleaner and very carefully removing (with a finger in the rag) the gunk without allowing any of it to drop down into the intake manifold.

 

The cleaner I used was very light, almost foamy. As long as I used the stuff sparingly, it didn't run, so I wasn't worried about the cleaner getting into places it didn't belong. But I could see how it might be a concern if you weren't careful about how/where you sprayed, or if your cleaner was "runnier".

A good suggestion - thanks.