How much rebuilding or serving can you do on the throttle bodies without removing them from the intake?

 

I just did this a couple weeks ago.
I feel compelled to tell you, do NOT get the 'AC Delco rebuild kit'. I got mine on Rock Auto, it called itself a 'carburetor rebuild kit' and had parts I didn't even need, un-even amounts of parts, and gaskets/O Rings so cheap I was replacing them a week later when I realized fuel was just pouring over the injectors and flooding the motor. If it was honestly AC Delco brand, then it's just embarrassing. Maybe try one by Standard Motor Products or anyone else. I had to order new O Ring sets, ONLY Carquest has them through Advance, and 99% of stores will not stock them. I actually borrowed o Rings off my Cadillac to drive the car home without ruining the motor from over-fueling (it was a long drive).

You should be able to get to the regulator/accumulators without removing the throttle units from the intake. Which I would consider the parts actually worth servicing. Other than that, I suppose you're just not going to change the large bottom gaskets that mount it to the intake. That being said, I found it much easier to just sit it all on a bench on some carboard. There's an awful lot of small parts and screws and you'll want a large clean place to sit them. I lost my cruise throttle cable clip in the engine bay somewhere, and luckily that's all I lost.

I did not disconnect the linkage or anything like that, in case that's what you're worried about. You won't have to worry about 'syncing them up' after. However, to change some of those gaskets, you'll want the fuel lines out of the way, and the only way those were coming off the throttle bodies was on a bench where I could put a wrench on their properly and not round anything off.

 

I normally just pull the top injector pod and work it. 5 torx. That gets you everything worth fixing. I have used the delco kit and it's fine, the standard and delco are exactly the same as I have used both. The GP sorensen is the better one but all have been fine on my end. I haven't recently used a delco kit though so it is possible like everything else lately it has gone to ****.

 

I only removed TB to put in shaft bushings. I just remove pods to rebuild. the biggest problem with crossfire tbi is the fuel pressure. I would personally check the fuel pressure first , to see what it is.