4wd
$50 site donor 2026
Wonder if the cartel has speed boats - have an idea
Will Coca Cola+ salt clean spark plugs?
- Thread starter Huskyguy68
- Start date
The only time I would use Coke and salt together is in Taiwanese chicken wings. All the cleaning you get from Coke will get you caramel and sugar baked back on afterward. A waste of time. If household cleaning is what we want vinegar works better.
The only time I got a rusty plug out of an engine is the first set out of a Ford. Somehow they cut corner on the coating and the rust would bind the plug inside, even with a platinum plug. I'll not buy Motorcraft plugs out of principle for this kind of corner cutting, I'd rather throw money at Chinese fake NGK than give money to Ford for this behavior.
Oh, they are the only bad plug I have even seen in an engine too. Hairline crack on the ceramic from a 2001 Taurus. Even Chinese fake NGK have better quality control than Ford's OEM.
Washing the plugs with water won't leave any Coke ingredients in the plug afterwords.
Also, I didn't say that that may be used for rust on spark plugs. Just mentioned what phosphoric acid is used for, which may help dissolve in that case the carbon deposits as well.
However, I'm sure Berryman's B12 will do much better job, but also more toxic with heavy fumes.
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I understand, but still. Why waste a good drink on a set of plugs when a few spoon worth of vinegar can do better?
People are fascinating......why on earth would you not just put in new plugs? Maybe some super old farm equipment with hard to find spark plugs? For a modern vehicle, no.....
Each to his/her own I guess.
Each to his/her own I guess.
Maybe try Valvoline Restore and Protect Fuel cleaner and see if that does a better jobim 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.
The classic formula will not, original formula might however.Pulled this one out of my Jaguar X-Type Yesterday. The center electrode is way off center. But it was still working fine....
Not a clue how something like this happens. About 100K on the plug. Think Coca-Cola will fix it??
View attachment 333494
If you want a crooked sparkplug, no one does it better than Champion! Go go wonky plugs!!Pulled this one out of my Jaguar X-Type Yesterday. The center electrode is way off center. But it was still working fine....
Not a clue how something like this happens. About 100K on the plug. Think Coca-Cola will fix it??
View attachment 333494
- Joined
- Sep 17, 2025
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- 317
''waste a good drink''? lol..it is poisonous crap in a can.
Drinking too much of it can give you Fatty Liver disease.
Issues with diabetes/ heart issues, inflammation, etc.
It's the high fructose corn syrup in each can.....and in just about every processed food/drink we buy.
A can of Coke a day is maybe best to clean your toilet bowl.
I respect your opinion and in general I agree.
However I have learned not to argue with success in the market place. The fact that someone still buy it, like someone buy stuff that I would never understand why still exist (like expensive vodka), does not change the fact that it is a good product in the market place. By "wasting a good drink" I mean wasting a 50cent product for something that you can do with 3cent (vinegar) for a much better result.
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- May 16, 2022
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Gosh, some folks should just "Have a Coke and a Smile" as TV told us in 1979...
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Wasnt that what Al Pacino did in the Scarface movie? Have Coke and smile.
Then murder every steenkin cockoroach.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2026
I'm pretty sure the electrons don't give a hoot and will jump the gap if it's not too wide.Pulled this one out of my Jaguar X-Type Yesterday. The center electrode is way off center. But it was still working fine....
Not a clue how something like this happens. About 100K on the plug. Think Coca-Cola will fix it??
View attachment 333494
Or maybe the holes are jumping. Depends upon which theory you like. I don't like the hole jumping one.
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2026
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- 148
Never do that to a spark plug. So acid does eat rust but it also attacks the good metal. It removes material blindly not with precision.
Salt solutions are used to accelerate rusting so no salt would not help with rust.
Rust on plugs is not the main issue it is cosmetic and could easily be brushed away. The problem with plugs is the center conductor, the outer conductor and the insulator. Each time they spark to ignite fuel a bit of metal is worn away forever kind of like how a welding rod has to be spent as it is used to weld in this case at a much slower rate.
The gap between the center and outer electrode have to be in a fairly narrow range on a stock engine with stock electronics in order to fire properly and reliably. That spark has to produce a reliable pattern to get consistent flame growth in the cylinder. As compression goes up it is harder adn harder to spark.
Today most electrodes use some form of hard and brittle rare earth metal like platnium, paladium, robimium some are fine wire and some just have a tiny bit laser welded to a much cheaper material. This gap is the most important single thing since the heat range does not change over time or in use. Heat range only matters when you modifying an engine beyound OEM power output and it not for the faint of heart.
In the old days you could and would adjust the gap bot before installation and at routine maintence intervals. Today you are told not to adjust gap that they come pre-gapped and that is normaly true. The real problem is that due to the brittle nature of some of these materials and the laser welding you can damage them after they have been heat cycled trying to correct the gap let alone filing and regapping. So normaly today you just toss the old ones away and replace them with new.
The days of cleaning and regapping your plugs every 3000 miles and setting points ont he dristributor are gone. Likewise cleaning and or replacing cap and rotor are gone. Best place for plugs is the dealership normaly. Auto Zone and the rest are typicaly $2-$4 a plug more than my dealership.
Salt solutions are used to accelerate rusting so no salt would not help with rust.
Rust on plugs is not the main issue it is cosmetic and could easily be brushed away. The problem with plugs is the center conductor, the outer conductor and the insulator. Each time they spark to ignite fuel a bit of metal is worn away forever kind of like how a welding rod has to be spent as it is used to weld in this case at a much slower rate.
The gap between the center and outer electrode have to be in a fairly narrow range on a stock engine with stock electronics in order to fire properly and reliably. That spark has to produce a reliable pattern to get consistent flame growth in the cylinder. As compression goes up it is harder adn harder to spark.
Today most electrodes use some form of hard and brittle rare earth metal like platnium, paladium, robimium some are fine wire and some just have a tiny bit laser welded to a much cheaper material. This gap is the most important single thing since the heat range does not change over time or in use. Heat range only matters when you modifying an engine beyound OEM power output and it not for the faint of heart.
In the old days you could and would adjust the gap bot before installation and at routine maintence intervals. Today you are told not to adjust gap that they come pre-gapped and that is normaly true. The real problem is that due to the brittle nature of some of these materials and the laser welding you can damage them after they have been heat cycled trying to correct the gap let alone filing and regapping. So normaly today you just toss the old ones away and replace them with new.
The days of cleaning and regapping your plugs every 3000 miles and setting points ont he dristributor are gone. Likewise cleaning and or replacing cap and rotor are gone. Best place for plugs is the dealership normaly. Auto Zone and the rest are typicaly $2-$4 a plug more than my dealership.
