Will Coca Cola+ salt clean spark plugs?

[Huskyguy68]

Seen a few vids where a vehicle owner cleans his old dirty spark plugs in a mixture of coca cola and some salt. Let's them sit for a few hours to soak. Or over night .
Removes, cleans a bit with a small wire brush.
Then rinses them under the tap water.
Air dry them.
Or use a hair dryer/reverse blow with shop vacuum.
Is this a bad idea? I normally remove my spark plugs and give a lite clean with sandpaper or wire brush. Reinstall, no issues.
Or i just outright replace with new ones.
Here in Canada, my spark plugs are about $15 each plus tax.

 

[JohnnyG]

Really?

 

[Huskyguy68]

Really?

Just googling to see what info comes up. Seems like many sites say it can help. and not just spark plugs, but rusty bolts/nuts/tools (use common senses...don't submerge your electric drill in coke+salt ..or your alternator, lol).
Anyways, I don't know if harmful or not, that's why i'm asking here. If anyone tried it and turned out to be a disaster.

Remember, if you do this, rinse off the spark plugs and dry them off before reinstalling.

 

[SilentType]

If I'm going to the trouble of removing plugs, new ones are going back in.

 

[ctechbob]

They're using the citric acid (or was it phosphoric) to do the cleaning. There's nothing special about that. It is so weak in drinks though it will take forever. If that's what you want to do, citric acid can be bought super cheaply.

 

[SOUNDMAN5000]

I now seldom ever change my low use lawn mower (s) plugs and my old EVO Harley seldom changed as well as she don't see many miles anymore and I once was a change every year but in my situation I found a clean plug runs as good as new. If and when in the past I was high mile, high use I change every year...

I do however remove the plugs before the 1st start of spring and clean the carbon on the plugs with a tooth brush size brass soft wire detail brush and then a shot of parts cleaner may or may not ck gap and is good as new for another year...

 

[SilentType]

Co Cola(the proper pronunciation) will clean battery terminals to like new condition. Seen it on others and have done it on my own car once. Very impressive! Can't comment on spark plugs however. Buyer beware.

 

[BHopkins]

I have never found value in cleaning spark plugs. Unless you have an oil burner that is severely fouling the plugs. it seems like a feel-good exercise that does nothing to improve performance or fuel economy. Or if it does, it is so little as to not be worth the time and effort. Unless you have an oil burner that is severely fouling the plugs. And oil fouled plugs are not going to clean with Coke and salt.


As @SilentType says, if I'm going to pull plugs, it is because they are due for replacement.

 

[RooflessVW]

https://www.aircraft-tool.com/detail?id=12

 

[JunkdrawerDog]

Didn't cleaning spark plugs go away along with leaded gasoline?

 

[SilentType]

Didn't cleaning spark plugs go away leaded gasoline?

Maybe so. I'd be leery of introducing contaminants trying to clean a spark plug, especially damage to precious metal tips. Wire brushes shed bristles and oftentimes are hard to see.

 

[Mainia]

Buy new ones.

 

[Geekhead]

Didn't cleaning spark plugs go away along with leaded gasoline?

I remember in auto shop in high school a long time ago they had this small sandblasting spark plug cleaner contraption that had a rubber gasket you placed the plug in. Turn on the compressor and move the plug around a little while the blaster did its job. This was in the days with no fancy metal plugs , just the run of the mill Champions/Delco whatever. Gapping after every cleaning of course.

 

[Hirev]

In high school auto shop way back in the 70s we had a spark plug cleaning machine that used air and fine sand. It did clean the spark plugs very well in about 10 seconds each but that was back in carbureted leaded gas days. My 1970 Dodge Dart with the 340 4 speed might not have been the fastest car in town but it had the cleanest spark plugs.

 

[Huskyguy68]

im using Valvoline Restore and Protect 5W30 for about the past 1200 klms on my 2.5L, 4cyl.

i pulled the plugs anyway just to see if the looked fouled up and or need a simple cleaning.
Plugs look normal dirty, nothing outstanding.
AS I already mentioned, i do replace my plugs as needed.
And they cost $15 each.


Just asking if anybody here has ever used this cleaning method and or was it safe/harmful/waste of time.
Regardless, i can try cleaning some rusty bolts and screws, tools , to see of coke+salt does anything.

 

[JohnnyG]

They're using the citric acid (or was it phosphoric) to do the cleaning. There's nothing special about that. It is so weak in drinks though it will take forever. If that's what you want to do, citric acid can be bought super cheaply.

Or carbolic acid, which is a product of the carbonation. A person would be better off (as foolish as this is) to use plain old white vinegar.
The picture shown is definitely misleading. Nothing will make that rusty plug look like new.

 

[JohnnyG]

Co Cola(the proper pronunciation) will clean battery terminals to like new condition. Seen it on others and have done it on my own car once. Very impressive! Can't comment on spark plugs however. Buyer beware.

No, it isn't. It's Coca-Cola.

 

[JohnnyG]

Just googling to see what info comes up. Seems like many sites say it can help. and not just spark plugs, but rusty bolts/nuts/tools (use common senses...don't submerge your electric drill in coke+salt ..or your alternator, lol).
Anyways, I don't know if harmful or not, that's why i'm asking here. If anyone tried it and turned out to be a disaster.

Remember, if you do this, rinse off the spark plugs and dry them off before reinstalling.

Oh yeah, and you forgot to include rusty chrome bumpers. Do you remember those?
Back in the 60's Coke was supposed to clean the rust off of those too.....it didn't work then either.

 

[Chris142]

My dad had a spark plug sandblaster. You stuck the plug in a hole and turned the sandblaster on and it would blow the carbon off.

I always though that was silly when plugs were $.49 back then.

 

[slo town]

My dad had a spark plug sandblaster. You stuck the plug in a hole and turned the sandblaster on and it would blow the carbon off.

I always thought that was silly when plugs were $.49 back then.

I’ve used those machines. What made them useful was that plugs were often super easy to R&R in older cars. Also too, with older cars having carburetors people played with jets and mixtures, so blasting them clean gave the plugs a fresh start for reading mixture changes.

Scott