Water is not considered a hazardous material so it is not required to be listed on MSDS, which only mandate potentially hazardous(flammable, health hazards, or radioactive) materials. There has to be water in there, otherwise it wouldn't create steam when it goes directly into the manifold. Right on the sea-foam can it instructs you to put it directly into the manifold for "complete engine cleaning" or something. Water does not burn, it turns to steam. If sea-foam contained no water, it would be just like running gas through. Even when surrounded by alcohols, when the spark ignites the charge, the alcohols burn off(concealing the ill effects of water) and the water vaporizes. You think any engine additive is going to advertise "now with more water" on their package(or even hidden away on a MSDS if they don't have to)? People associate water+engine=bad and wouldn't buy it.
That article is completely backwards, and then contradicts itself.
- Carbon is an ionic substance. It has an electronegativity of 2.55, well into ionic (>1.7) territory.
-Water forms polar covalent bonds, not ionic.
-The last line contradicts itself, even going by the article's inaccuracies. It states that carbon is NOT IONIC(therefore covalent), and thus not miscible with water (covalent). Three strikes, it's out.
You've never heard of the "water through the brake booster line?" trick? As long as you don't let it suck water in too fast and hydrolock things,you'll get loads of black smoke in a hurry. It creates high temperature, high pressure, high velocity steam that clears all the crap out with it.
Maybe you should try the bucket of water? I let the head of a small outboard sit in a tray of water overnight, came back the next day with a toothbrush and the stuff came off with a little scrubbing. Prior, nothing even loosened it. Carb cleaner, acetone, solvents, nothing worked.
While that may have been "light" deposits, it's the same principle. Steam is just water with a lot more molecular energy so it dissolves things faster. Same idea of why sugar dissolves quickly in hot coffee but slowly or not at all in cold tea- and faster still if you stir it. Water will dissolve virtually anything if you give it enough time- that's why it's called the universal solvent. The combustion chamber heat is the "hot", and the velocity of gases through the engine/manifold is the "stirring". It's a bucket of water except with a rate of reaction thousands of times faster.
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