So there are many products on the market sold as fuel additives; some (like 'Heet' brand) are nothing more than 99.9% isopropyl alcohol in a nice package.
When trying to understand how they work and what they actually do you hear vague things like "Removes water in fuel. The alcohol will bond with water and solubilize water into gasoline so it can be burned and pass out exhaust"
From what I understand alcohol and water don't 'react' -> there is no chemical formula change. They simply mix really well. But how does this make this new mixture 'mix' with gasoline better?
I know that if you take 50% isopro (other 50% is water) and light it on fire, it will burn. But I understand that it's only the 50% of alcohol molecules burning, not the water. So at the end you'll still end up with the water remaining (excluding some evaporation from the heat).
What's going on? Can someone explain the actual chemistry please of how IPA removes water from the gasoline?
UPDATE: found this technical paper from a chemical engineer on the subject: https://web.archive.org/web/20130427123941/http://www.epa.gov/OMS/regs/fuels/rfg/waterphs.pdf
However, it still doesn't spell out the exact chemistry but should add more context to my question.