The question is technical, it is intended to be deeper than reading the can. I'd like to know more what the chemicals are, what they do, what they can't do. thanks.

once some asked, how does the gas station pump stop filling your tank? is it a float, a splash-back value, air flow, etc... So someone asked the gas station jockey how the gas pump knows when to stop filling the tank. His answer: gee i put it in and when it stops, it's full. real deep answer...

I completely understand, and I'm telling you that you may never find out. Companies do not volunteer information such as the formulas, or methods of action. It is in their best interest for that information NOT to be known. Unless you have access to sophisticated laboratory instruments like mass spectrometers for reverse engineering, you will have to satisfy yourself with educated guesses, and empirical results.

You can obtain approximate clues from product safety data sheets. They will list classes of chemicals contained in the product.

I can tell you what I know from experience about some of these products...

throttle body cleaner & mass air flow sensor will likely be the same thing:
Simply a solvent intended to dissolve the varnishes that build up on throttle bodies (polymerized long chain hydrocarbons and soot) and blast them away, while leaving zero residue of its own.

carburetor cleaner:
again a mixture of nonpolar mineral solvents (petroleum distillates such as acetone, toluene, aliphatic hydrocarbons etc.) which dissolves the various residues that build up on carburetors. The only difference here is that carb cleaner is designed to leave a film of oil because carbs require lubrication. This product isn't really suitable for modern engines, or cleaning surface due to the residue.

brake cleaner is a again a mixture of solvents, which cannot leave residue so as not to interfere with brake operation. There are various kinds, and their composition will be similar to the other cleaners, varying perhaps only in the proportions. Some contain Tetrachloroethylene (nicknamed PERC) which is an industrial solvent used for numerous degreasing applications such as drycleaning clothing. It's very powerful, yet evaporates quickly and safely to leave no residue.

if you don't use products as directed ... well they just won't be as effective as a product that ARE intended for your application. In general I would keep all of these away from plastic and rubber. Especially the brake cleaner. I've seen it dissolved plastic trim. Metal can't be touched by any of them.

So that's a brief description for you. If you want to know more then I suggest you dive into wikipedia, study some organic chemistry textbooks, or talk to an industrial chemist.

As for coolant, there are plenty of articles available on the internet that you can read, so I'll keep it brief.

The base will be one of two diols: ethylene glycol (EG) or propylene glycol (PG). Their purpose to depress the freezing point of water.

Then coolant contains an additive package (inhibitors) to prevent metals from corroding. There are different kinds based on silicates, phosphates, organic acids, or combinations of any of these. If you want to understand the complex metal reactions, reaction intermediates and buffering action, then I suggest you look into university chemistry courses.

Because the additives in antifreeze are proprietary, the safety data sheets (SDS) provided by the manufacturer list only those compounds which are considered to be significant safety hazards when used in accordance with the manufacturer's recommendations.

if a gas station jockey understood the venturi effect, then maybe he wouldn't be pumping gas.
Or maybe he would.
I certainly don't understand how every single thing I use works.

There shouldn't be any sand or abrasion happening in your cooling system! Your water pump would die pretty quickly if that happened. Silicates are not sand. They are dissolved anions.

Coolant does NOT contain lube. The pump bearings should never come in contact with coolant. If it did, it would fail very quickly.

Dexcool did have problems if you never changed it, but those have been completely resolved. I see there are still a lot of myths floating around the internet.

Like I said. You don't need to be a chemist. Just follow directions and you will be fine. Changing coolant and cleaning throttle body is not rocket science.

I have researched the data sheets, have pieced together some info on my own, but i am not certain of my knowledge and rather than spread any misinformation, i wanted someone much smarter/knowledgeable than me to speak up.
here's what i know:
Mass Air Flow sensor cleaners contain solvents to gently dissolve accumulated dirt past the air cleaner, there is always a bit of dirt. the dirt hits the hot-wire sensor and a bit of it sticks. My understanding is that the operating temp is about 100 Celsius. The solvents are designed to wash-off dirt and leave NO film or residue, they are designed to totally evaporate at "room" temperatures or higher. Reason: do want any chemical reaction or residue on a thin wire that will heat up. These solvents are not "aggressive" and to totally clean of all the dirt, application of the solvent means bursts of spray until most of the can s empty.

Brake cleaner is an aggressive cleaner designed to clean off metal and metal parts including brakes. It is designed to clean-off/blast-off dirt and grease. It may or may not leave a residue, it makes NO claims about residue. I do not know what would happen if you used it for throttle bodies or carburetors. I use brake cleaner to wash off crud around oil pan and filter on my motorcycle and car during oil changes.

As you point out, carb cleaner does leave a lubricating residue. It is also designed to wash of gasoline stains, gasoline that's turned into varnish. The solution of carb cleaner and old gasoline was designed to be burned off off as a fuel in the combustion chamber. It burns. I hope it is oxygen sensor safe, but i don't know.

Throttle is a cleaner, not a gasoline washer, that can be burned in the combustion chamber. Supposed to be oxygen sensor safer.

the biggest difference in rads fluids is that they are fundamentally NOT compatible no matter what is said. if you mix them, you might get goo. Throughly must flush engine/rad with water (like 3 flushes minimum) if you change brands or types of rad fluid. why? it's chemistry i don't fully understand but that's what happens.

Some cars are designed to have silicates in the rad fluid. These silicates are sand and they are designed to scrape off any bonding of the rad fluid to the engine block or rad and keep the the metal freshly exposed. But silicates are very, very abrasive, as they should be. If the water pump is aluminum, this fluid will destroy it. All Japanese cars are designed for NO silicate rad fluid. Several European cars are designed for silicates.

There are a lot of additives in rad fluid to lube the pump AND prevent electrolysis (galvanic corrosion), and keep the PH at 7 (no acid or base formation) beause any acidity or base formation will of course eat metal.

There are different chemistries: ethylene glycol (seems best to do heat transfer) and propylene glycol (less effective at heat transfer) and one even advertises no water coolant (what he does not tell you is heat transfer is incredibly poor that you would need a rad twice the cooling capacity).

The additive packages are a nightmare: DEX-COOL (lots of law suits), OAT (not the kind you eat), etc... Trying to read up on what's what, you get a ton of mumbo-jumbo but NO indication why, intended use, chemical compatibility with the car, and why not.

I really did not want to become a chemist but i am being forced to become one to get some straight answers. I was wondering if someone out there could deliver some real, detailed, reasonably deep, straight talk in"plain-English" we could all understand and not the usual mumbo-jumbo hype we get. Well, that's my rant for today, hope what i learned is helpful to you.