Legally Increasing Motor Performance

[JesseK]

I heard a rumor from a fellow mentor, who heard it from a well-respected team. It's actually pretty ingenious if it's true, and it's legal as far as I can tell. I'm somewhat skeptical though since I didn't hear the info first-hand and won't have the time to test it for a couple of weeks.

Does running a DC motor in water, specifically a TETRIX motor in de-ionized water, clean out its internal windings enough to noticeably increase its performance? If so, does anyone have relative performance gains?