<VV> Oil Additives & Aluminum Blocks

[MSYVairs at aol.com]

As reported in this mornings issue of carconnection.com

Bill "Swamp-Rat" Hadley
Denham Springs, LA

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Oil Additives Bad For Aluminum Blocks? 
A team of chemists and mathematicians at the University of Western Ontario 
deduced that most oil additives are complicated compounds containing zinc and 
phosphate. They then used computer simulations to find out what happens "at a 
molecular level when a film of oil containing additives is compressed between 
two hot, hard surfaces" like engine parts. They concluded that as the pressure 
rises, the molecules of zinc and phosphate form cross-links with each other, 
according to a science report in The Washington Post. In engines of steel 
alloys, this process helps minimize wear. But not so in aluminum engines, where the 
cross-linked molecular hash becomes harder than the metal and abrades the 
aluminum surfaces. In other words, if these guys are right, additives are good for 
engines with steel parts but potentially harmful if used in engines with 
major aluminum parts, especially on wear surfaces. Experts at the American 
Petroleum Institute told TheCarConnection they were not familiar with the Ontario 
study. -Mike Davis