Well the cleaning is done. Worked until after the sun went down. My dad managed to find time so we worked for a while. We couldn't figure out how to unlatch the throttle cables from the body but it didn't matter. And holy mother of heck was it dirty in there.
We polished out the entire throttle body down to bare shiny metal. We even cleaned out some the air intake as it leads into the engine as well as the EGR hose. It's still really bad deeper into the engine but cleaning that would require disconnecting all the fuel injectors, releasing the fuel pressure in the fuel rails, and disconnecting several hoses.
On my own I think I solved the whole tugging predicament that the car would do in parking lots and at stoplights, where it would gradually accelerate by itself. The carbon was clogging the TB so bad that I think it was preventing the throttle plate from closing all the way, thereby leaving the throttle slightly opened. I bet it hit my gas mileage too. I haven't driven the car yet and don't want to right now since we put so much cleaner in there and spilled a little coolant on the exhaust, so I'll take it out tomorrow morning and see how it behaves.
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