i bought a set of e30 m3 ITB's for install on my(shhhh, dont tell them, its not for a bimmer) and i had a few simple questions.

at WOT, are the butterfly plates suposed to be completely vertical, as in 90 degrees open? i have been checkin them out and messin with the throttle, at WOT they seem to be about 90 to 95%(80 or 85 degrees) open. i see they can be adjusted via a nut that acts as a stopper for the throttle linkage.

also, i want to clean it up throughly, but dont know if i can trust myself with fully dissasembling it and putting it back together properly. Soooo, what should i do to clean off all the grime, dirt, and oil gunk off? is it safe to just blast in with simple green and scrub and rinse?

i had a few other questions that i forgot, but have any e30 m3 owners had reliability problems with the ITB's? linkages, gaskets, seals, ect?

thanks

safe to clean.

Go ahead and clean them.

TB gaskets are a weak point, really the only weak point. This part can crack and cause a reasonably bad vacuum leak that is not visible without taking the TB's off. This part should be checked regularly - i think the maintenance interval is like 75k or less. This is not a reliability issue, but more of a maintenance thing that just needs to be done. nothing that happens with the TB's is going to cause a serious failure, or at least i have not heard of that happening nor had TB problems in my 5 years experience and now having 3 cars with s14's in the family.

make sure to have the TB's synced. This should be done like every 20k with valve adjustments. If your tb's have yellow caps, they have never been synced. If they have blue caps on the screws, they have been synced at some point.

hth