<VV> Combustion & emissions

[John Kepler]

Wouldn't alcohol make the engine run cooler - rather than hotter?

Not necessarily.  Ethanol burns slower, therefore longer than gasoline.
This can make for hotter burns, at different places than gasoline.

  Maybe 
there is something else it does to help with emissions?

Yeah....oxygen!  It's an oxygenated fuel (that hydroxyl radical attached to
an organic chain is what defines an alcohol).

"Better things for better living through chemistry!"

"Unless an individual understands mathematics, physics, and chemistry, it
really isn't human....just an animal that can be trained not to make messes
in the corner!"  R.A. Heinlein

John