So here is a little tutorial I thought someone might find helpful if their car is running a little rough. I did everything myself and alot of it is just speculation so use the information I post as education and not diagnosis. As you know... cars are a bitch.

I decided to swap the fuel filter and re-clean the entire intake system up to the butterfly in the throttle body. I also added a little mix of toluene to the tank (i'll discuss that at the end.
basically the tools you need are a vise grip to lock the fuel filter stationary nut in place, an open ended wrench or a pipe wrench, penetrating lube, gas catch pan, rags, throttle body cleaner. disconnect fuel pump fuse located under the drivers side dash bottom right 25A fuse. start car and run til it dies. do it again, and again. disconnect negative of battery. now... spray alot of wd-40/penetrating lube/bolt blaster on the filter nuts. let it sit for a while and spray it again, and again. torque the fuel line nut lefty lucy while securely holding the vise grip/fuel filter in place as not to bend the fuel lines. there is some give on the lines so dont worry about removing the filter. have your gas pan readily underneath. let er rip. installation is opposite of disassembly. should be no problem. make sure you are installing the new filter the same way as the old one.
I took apart the intake and cleaned it very thoroughly with the throttle body cleaner and NEW micro fiber rags. all the hose retaining clamps are phillips head. be careful around the sensors with your hands. i used q-tips as well to get in there nice and deep (giggity). take your time with this cleaning it'll pay off in the end. remount and put back together everything. plug back in sensors. recheck everything is back together otherwise it'll throw a code when you start the car or run like ****. reattach battery terminal. tap the negative 3 times to reset computer. TAKE HER FOR A 15-20 MINUTE HARD RIDE. LOTS OF STARTING STOPPING SPEEDING BRAKING AND SMOOTH COASTING OVERDRIVE SPORTS MODE CRUISING AND EVERYTHING INBEWEEN. check filter for gas leak when done.
now... the TOLUENE. I decided to conduct my own experiment with a gas additive. as everyone knows toluene is a thinner but also an octane booster at about 114 octane. it is naturally occuring in gasoline and has no damaging effects except it may melt rubber fittings around fuel lines and injectors at high concentrations or prolonged use. my application falls into neither categories.
I mixed a quart of pure at about 1/8 of a tank of gasoline bringing it to a 1/10th mixture of toluene to gas. this was my first application. i plan on doing a 20% and 30% mixture but not consecutively (risk melting fuel lines). I simply wanted to do this to make it run cleaner and increase octane a little and thin out the gunk and stuff trapped in the lines/tank/injectors and stuff. heres are the test results. remember this is in conjunction with the intake cleaning and filter swap. educational purposes only. I cant say any one thing was the key factor.

After the hard long drive for the computer relearning i reset the onboard computer mpg. here are the improvements i noticed since 2 days ago.
-throttle response was a tick better
-slightly noticeable performance increase especially in the high rpms in low gear.
-the gas mileage went up about 2 mpg on the highway and around 3-4 city. its a little hard to tell because ive been driving a little hard to get the toluene thru the injectors at W.O.T to clean everything out so only when i try to drive nice i have noticed the improvement.
-idle speed in D at a stop went from about 600 to 650-700 which is supposed to be correct i believe.
-idle in P went from about 720 to almost 800.
-very noticeable improvement in idle control when braking fast and turning hard. biggest improvement of all. no more low idle or bogging. very smooth control when down shifting during braking even slamming on the brakes. A+
-engine temperature a tick lower on the dash gauge. we will see if it goes back up a hair when the toluene runs out. its supposed to drop the temperature a little. it IS noticeable to the trained eye i promise you.
-bogging/backfire when in P has decreased slightly. i may have bad catalytic converters or dirty injectors or a bad coil pack or.... blah blah. but anyways it HAS decreased a little.
-bogging/backfire when in D is almost non existent now. it was only slightly noticeable before.
Negatives I have noticed since fuel filter swap/intake cleaning/toluene additive= NONE
COST=
toluene-11 bucks a quart
micro fiber rags- about 1.50 dollar each
fuel filter-15 bucks
carb cleaner-5 bucks
bolt blaster-5 bucks

IN CONCLUSION I JUST WANT TO SAY THIS WAS A 2 HOUR JOB THAT I STRETCHED TO ABOUT 4 BECAUSE I WORKED SLOWLY IN THE DARK OF NIGHT. THE GAINS ARE REAL AND NOTICEABLE. IT WAS A PLEASURE CONDUCTING THIS TEST EVEN THOUGH I KNOW THAT KNOW ONE WILL APPRECIATE THE TIME AND EFFORT SPENT AND RESEARCH CONDUCTED ON THE TOULENE ETC. MY CAR FEELS AND DRIVES BETTER AND ONLY I KNOW IT... BUT IM OKAY WITH THAT

 

update-
i just ran the fuel/toluene mixture out of the engine and put in chevron 92 octane about a half tank. the performance and everything has stayed the same BUT there are a few things i noticed on the bad side.
when i was cleaning the TPS i thought i may have damaged it. there is a plastic flap looking thing that covers the metal part of the sensor on the inside of the duct. it looks like an Amish hat if you will. picture it. i broke one side loose. or maybe it was already broken. or maybe it was supposed to taken off completely im not sure. i would love if someone could help me with that. anyways. the engine threw a code today fuel fail 23 which from what ive researched is the car running too rich.
my hypothesis- its one of these problems.
-the toluene mix has the VCM reading too high of octane
-the little crack i mentioned above in the intake duct is causing air leakage
-i screwed up the TPS while i was cleaning it.
so by order of operation i am going fix these. the toluene is out of the tank now so i might just take the negative off the battery after i seal the crack in the intake and see if the code doesnt come back. if it does then i pretty much know the problem is the TPS. Can anyone help me with that? just tell me if the sensor is supposed to have a plastic hat on it or show me a link that shows what its supposed to look like or if youre really a good person... take off the intake duct right after the MAF and look inside and tell me what you see or take a picture. ID REALLY APPRECIATE THE HELP. The car still runs fine but i want it running perfect.

 

i believe this is what the sensor looks like. mine has a plastic flap over it about the size of the cut out for the TPS in the intake duct. it looks like it should either sit over it like a hat or shouldnt be there at all. its black and looks like an AMISH hat. id appreciate someones input

 

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