<VV> Oil Additives & Aluminum Blocks
MSYVairs at aol.com
MSYVairs at aol.com
Thu Mar 17 10:27:54 EST 2005
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
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