Is soaking some rusted pliers and wrenches in used motor oil a good way to remove

just get a 2 liter of coke

3-n-1 oil and a wire brush

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the rust?

I remember my Uncle doing this, but don't recall how effective it was.

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Use electrolysis. VERY easy to do. Fill a large container with water (large enough to easily hold whatever is you want to remove rust from no reason to get carried away with size) then pour in 1 cup of Arm & Hammer washing soda per gallon of water. Next suspend a piece of steel you don't care about in water on side of tub then suspend whatever it is you want to remove the rust from on the other side of the tub, next hook the red clamp of a battery charger to your anode (that's the piece of metal you don't care about) and the negative to whichever tool you DO want to remove the rust from (please tell me you haven't plugged the battery charger into power yet)

So you should have positive terminal of battery charger hooked to suspended anode and negative clamp hooked to tool you wish to clean (they MUST be suspended or it won't work correctly) now simply plug the battery charger in and turn it on, you will almost immediately notice bubbling action in your tub of water, that's a good sign, it means the process has began. Let it go for at least a few hours and perhaps overnight depending on the level of rust. When the process is done you will see that all the rust is gone from your tool and now attached to the anode. Simply replace the anode as needed and you can reuse the tub as many times as needed.

I restore cast iron cookware as a hobby and this is the ONLY way I clean it.

AFTER the electrolysis process is complete THEN you apply a light coat of oil to tools.

Here is a much more thorough write up of the process. Don't be scared it's easy to do. Just make sure you never touch the water when the battery charger is plugged in because well yeah.

LINK

Sounds too messy

Vinegar works like a charm. Just leave it soaking for an hour or more depending on the level of rust. Most of the time the rust just rinses off but if it's bad you may need to scrub a little. I do this with tools all the time and usually rinsing the item off after the soak makes it look brand new.

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just get a 2 liter of coke

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This.

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Coke or vinegar works

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What if you mixed the two of them?

Another good use for motor oil

Pomade. Put it in your hair and watch the ladies line up to grind on you.

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some of you dumbasses need to pay attention in high school chem class

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YOU calling me a dumbass?

The answer is to soak it in diesel.