This is how I'd rewrite the section in the MM Al/Hg:
It's been emphatically stated several times that some water is needed in this reaction to breakdown the aluminum foil and produce the hydrogen that drives the reduction of the imine to the amine etc. That may be true, but I know for a fact that it doesn't need to be added. That is to say, maybe there is some trace water in the MeOH Mr. A uses (Heet) that is fulfilling this function, and maybe it's even in all MeOH except expensive absolute anhydrous stuff. Perhaps enough is made as a byproduct of the reduction of nitromethane to methylamine or the formation of the imine from the ketone and methylamine. I don't know. But he doesn't add it anymore and it definitely doesn't hurt anything. I also know that someone who isn't Chromic has run an Al/Hg with up to 30% water in MeOH and has gotten excellent yields (beyond 1g of mdma.hcl for every 1g of mdp2p). The amount of water added, does not really seem to affect the yield! I'm sure 70% IPA would be fine as well. The only difference with IPA is that when it's basified, all the IPA will go to the top layer. IMHO, this makes it easier to extract all of the MDMA, but make sure that the washes are 5% NaOH (or brine) to make sure all of the ketone is pushed to the organic layer. Also, it has been SWIC's experience that 95% EtOH also works well, and has noticed that ethanol forms a separate layer after basification as well.
Before, Mr. A was adding about 25mL, but he likes how it's going now. It has been shown that a small amount of water has no effect on the yields with this technique one way or the other, and a larger amount of water (ie 30% water) will only cause the foil to break down even faster creating an uncontrollable reaction.
HoH, I really doubt water makes a difference one way or the other. If anything, I have noticed that yields go up with more water. I'm not sure if this is generally true with Al/Hg's or specific to the MeAm Al/Hg... or just because as I've used more water my technique has become better. In any case, I haven't done the experimentation to say for sure... but my intuition tells me that the amount of water in the rxn makes no real difference.
Perhaps other bees would contest this account?