Cylinder Block
The deep skirt cast aluminum cylinder block is an in-line configuration. Thin wall, interference fit cast iron liners provide optimum weight, cylinder bore roundness and robustness. The low volume coolant jacket gives good warm-up times. The cylinder block is a cross flow design with the coolant inlet to the cylinder head on the exhaust side and the coolant outlet from the cylinder head on the air inlet side.
Oil from the cylinder head drains back to the oil pan through open apertures; one located at the front of the cylinder block and one at the rear of the cylinder block between the timing chain and the lower timing chain cover.
A cast aluminum alloy, structural windage tray is bolted to the bottom of the cylinder block to further improve the cylinder block stiffness, minimize Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) and help reduce oil foaming.
Various machining ports in the cylinder block are sealed with cup plugs and threaded plugs. Removal of these is not necessary for service procedures.
In cold climate markets a cylinder block heater is fitted to the cylinder block. The heater is screwed into a threaded bore on the cylinder block, which is normally sealed with a threaded plug. The heater comprises a heating element, powered by mains electricity. The element warms the engine coolant in the water jacket surrounding the cylinders in the cylinder block to prevent the cylinder block from freezing.