Diet Coke is a great exhaust cleaner!

soaked my cut headers in 3 2-liters of Diet Coke in a rubbermaid bin this saturday overnight 'til sunday. Sunday morning used some heavy duty tin foil balled up and rubbed 'til the corrosion disappeared! Should have took a before pic I know, but let me just tell you that they were nasty. The really bad pitted corrosion is now a lovely grey/black and thankfully is on the backside of the pipe. Anyways, here's the pic. They look great in person.

 

Wow, those look nice. I'll definitely have to give it a try on mine.

 

Interesting - looks good.

 

Holy crap! Thats amazing! My headers are attacked with corrosion from being left outside for a couple weeks. I guess I'll have to try that soon. Thanks!
-SLKid

 

Does it make a difference between coke or diet coke or is it just the phosphoric acid?

 

diet has no sugar so much less stickier. Then I gave 'em a wiping with Never Dull wadding polish and wiped off with a microfiber towel.

 

phosphoric acid is the flavor of cola, and the active ingredient in products such as Naval Jelly! CLR bathroom tub cleaner works great as well.

 

I saw that mythbusters too, it does do fair for the cost!?!

 

I will have to try that with my pipes. I'll take before and after pics for everyone. I'm a little worried that my pitting is too bad to be fixed with coke, however. DW, just how bad was yours? You mentioned bad but mine has some pretty deep pits. Will the coke make it so bad that I might have to replace the pipes after this? I suppose if they're that bad I should replace the pipes anyway

 

Does anyone have an answer to the above question?? I'm curious to know if the diet coke will eat through the pipes if they're too coroded?? I mean, mine arent super bad... but I'd rather be safe with information than sorry with regrets and "I shouldas"

 

well lets put it this way if you drink the stuff how much can you really think it will eat away at full metal. and then once youve seen that do you really want to ever drink coke again? lol but i think it should be save as long as the pits arent all the way through the coke will only eat away at the rust.

inless im mistake and have gotten lucky in the past. i would also preffer to use CLR as well as Zookie400 mentioned

 

If the pipe is that thin the pressure of your fingers will push through it.

 

Not to mention the pressure plus heat from the engine. If they where bad enough for diet coke to eat through, you wouldn't be trying to bring them back to life

 

exactly - just dont drop the mentos in the pipe while cleaning then again that would be funny

 

Lol. I'll try to keep my Freshmakers away from my Headers. I got a whole bottle of diet coke (Well, diet sams cola. Same diff) in the cabinet. Maybe I'll do that today before I go into work at five. Removing the headers should be easy right? I'll take some before and after pics.
Thanks guys!
-SLKid

 

Just dipped mine tonight. I smell like Diet Coke. SL, Ill let you know what it does to my pipes in a few days...

 

Maybe a little late but, use heat on those header bolts they are notorious for breaking.

 

I've been meaning to post this for a couple days now! I keep forgetting. I havent cleaned them yet, But i'm buying diet coke today and I think I'ma get started on it while I wait for my Petcock Rebuild kit.

 

Different acids like to eat different materials. Phosphoric acid will eat rust faster than steel or chrome. Dont get me wrong it will eat through those things given a strong enough solution and time. The phosphoric acid will also leave a slight protective coating. This coating is also used by a company(POR-15) for their paint systems. Great stuff by the way. They even have some high temp coating for exhausts you might want to check out. No I dont work for them or get paid by them I just use their stuff. http://www.por15.com

 

Well I just dipped two of my headers, and it didnt really do a whole lot honestly. I tried BKF on my bikes and that worked pretty well, eating away all the rust on it. But my Headers are pretty much Toast. They have reaaal deep pits and scores in them, I was hoping the coke would eat through it and at least leave it shiny, but eh.. I'll take pics when I pull out my other two pipes. It looks better dont get me wrong, but its not what I expected. Oh well, I can live with it.
-SLK

 

How long did you let them soak for?
I soaked the brake hose stays in diet pepsi for a week.
They were brown with rust.
After the foil rub down they came out looking like new.
I was very impressed.

 

I let the worst ones soak for twelve hours. the Not so bad ones for eight. 3/4s of the rust is gone but she's so pitted it'll never look the same. Looks much much better though. Heres some Before and After pics

 

looks like the PO let her sit out nose down in a pond, nice clean up though. I saw a complete set of nice header pipes and a burned out collector on ebay the other day for 50.00