Oil Additives Bad For Aluminum Blocks?

[KiwiTT]

Do we have any aluminum in our Engines ?

The Car Connection

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

[banjo]

Maybe an aluminium block but aren't most working surfaces steel? (bores, valves/guides, bearing inserts) aside from all the components that we know are steel or steel alloy, other metals/alloys: pistons, crankshaft/bearings, camshafts/bearings, etc.