**4. Conclusions**

In this study, a varying cast pressure was applied to squeeze cast novel Al-Si alloys, and their effect on microstructure, mechanical properties, and wear behavior at higher operating temperatures were investigated and compared with GDC counterparts. The investigation reveals better mechanical behavior for squeeze cast Al-Si alloys compared to their GDC counterpart. In all cases, the HPSC alloy shows better mechanical behavior (hardness (115 HV) and tensile strength (540 MPa)) as compared to its GDC counterpart (hardness (86 HV), and tensile strength (367 MPa)). The microstructural study reveals reduced grain size, increased grain boundaries volume, reduction in dendrite arm spacing, small and rounded Si eutectic phases, and dendrites in the HPSC alloy. Wear behavior was studied at different loads 20 N and 60 N for the samples fabricated by GDC, LPSC, and HPSC routes. The results reveal the remarkable differences in wear rate, even at higher operating temperature and load for HPSC samples (wear loss 0.09 g), compared to the GDC (wear loss 0.045 g) and LPSC samples (wear loss 0.033 g) under nominal pressure due to minimal casting defects and lesser coefficient of friction. Under the same test condition, the HPSC samples show the least COF of 0.481 as against the GDC (COF—0.534) and LPSC (COF—0.516) samples. This study helps in determining the high-temperature wear-resistant behavior of a novel Al-Si HPSC alloy, making it suitable for critical industrial applications.

**Author Contributions:** V.S.C. has conducted the literature survey, development, testing and validation of the alloy. K.S.V.B.R.K. helped supporting in literature survey and manuscript draft preparation. M.R. supported in developing the alloy. K.S. contributed in conceptualization, methodology, critical analysis of data, reviewing and editing the manuscript. S.D. supported in formal analysis, data curation and resource allocation. K.G.P. supported in resources, review and editing the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

**Funding:** This research received no external funding.

**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.

**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.

**Data Availability Statement:** The results are a part of an ongoing study and the data will be made available on reasonable requests.

**Acknowledgments:** The authors would like to acknowledge the support rendered by Ramya Gopalakrishnan and Divya Sekar of M/s Ashok Leyland Ltd.—MED during testing of the samples.

**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflict of interest.
