The cylinder block of a Ford I4 DOHC engine

The cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting (or sometimes an assembly of modules) containing cylindrically bored holes for the pistons of a multi-cylinder reciprocating internal combustion engine, or for a similarly constructed device such as a pump. The Ford I4 DOHC engine was a 4-cylinder inline Internal combustion engine with twin overhead camshafts produced by the Ford Motor Company. A piston is a component of Reciprocating engines Pumps and Gas compressors It is located in a cylinder and is made gas-tight by Piston The internal combustion engine is an engine in which the Combustion of Fuel and an Oxidizer (typically air occurs in a confined space called a For information on Wikipedia project-related discussions see WikipediaVillage pump. It is a complicated part at the heart of an engine, with adaptions to attach the cylinder head, crankcase, engine mounts, drive housing and engine ancillaries, with passages for coolants and lubricants. In an Internal combustion engine, the cylinder head sits atop the cylinders and consists of a platform containing part of the Combustion chamber and the For the GI Joe character see List of GI Joe ARAH characters. For the Transformers characters see Crankcase (Transformers. A coolant is a fluid which flows through a device in order to prevent its overheating transferring the heat produced by the device to other devices that utilize or dissipate it A lubricant (sometimes referred to as a "Lube" is a substance (often a liquid introduced between two moving surfaces to reduce the Friction between them improving The distance between the cylinder bores (midpoint to midpoint) cannot easily be changed since the machining facilities would require extensive modification. Instead, the bore (diameter) is commonly varied to obtain different engine displacements. Geometry, a diameter of a Circle is any straight Line segment that passes through the center of the circle and whose Endpoints are on the Engine displacement is defined as the total Volume of air/fuel mixture an Engine can draw in during one complete engine cycle it is normally stated in Cubic This and the minimum thickness of material required between two cylinders are a limiting factor concerning the potential displacement because the bore to stroke ratio has to stay within certain limits. Engine blocks are usually made from cast iron or, in modern engines, aluminium. Cast iron usually refers to grey cast iron, but identifies a large group of Ferrous Alloys which solidify with a Eutectic. WikipediaNaming

A wet liner cylinder block features removable cylinder bores which fit into the block by means of special gaskets and offer the advantage of being easily replaced without the need to re-machine the entire casting. Wet Liner designs are popular with European manufacturers, most notably Renault and Peugeot who continue to use them to the present. This is about the company for other uses see Renault (disambiguation. For the article about the bicycle manufacturer see Cycles Peugeot.

The size of the distance between the cylinder bores has led to a distinction between the V8 engine families the Detroit Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) have been building since the 1950s: There are Small-block and Big-block engines. Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following General Motors Corporation ( GM) ( is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in 1908 and headquartered in the United States. Chrysler LLC is an American Automobile manufacturer that has been producing Automobiles since 1925 These families differ in respect to the distance between cylinder bores, but not necessarily in engine displacement since the latter is defined by bore and stroke. Engine displacement is defined as the total Volume of air/fuel mixture an Engine can draw in during one complete engine cycle it is normally stated in Cubic A stroke is a single action of certain Engines In a steam, Otto or Diesel Piston Engine, a stroke is the action of

While the big-blocks have been less commonly used in recent years, the small-block families have grown in displacement and have now reached a level that was reserved for big-blocks in previous years (up to 7 litres of displacement in a Corvette). A corvette is a small maneuverable lightly armed Warship, originally smaller than a Frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft, although many Even though the technology has greatly changed, basic specifications have been the same for fifty years^[1].

Big block

A big-block Oldsmobile 400 cubic engine, which is capable of delivering 360 horsepower (270 kW) and 440 foot-pounds force (600 N·m) of torque. Oldsmobile was a brand of Automobile produced for most of its existence by General Motors.

A big-block engine is a North American V8 in a family of engines which generally have greater than 5. A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the Crankcase in two banks of four cylinders in most cases set at a right angle to each other 9 L (360 cubic inches) of displacement; factory engine sizes reached a peak of 8. Engine displacement is defined as the total Volume of air/fuel mixture an Engine can draw in during one complete engine cycle it is normally stated in Cubic 2 L (500 cubic inches) in Cadillac's 1970s range. Cadillac is a Brand of Luxury vehicles owned by General Motors. Since then manufacturers have responded to the need for superior engines, as well as the need to replace surviving worn-out, decades-old big-block racing engines which have been rebuilt too many times. In 2002 General Motors released the carbureted Chevrolet 572 crate engine (9. Chevrolet (ˌʃɛvroʊˈleɪ - French origin (also known as Chevy) is a Brand of Automobile, produced by General Motors (GM An automobile engine replacement is an Engine or a major part of one that is sold individually without any other parts required to make a functional car (for example a Drivetrain 4L), available for installation in most vehicles which have enough room under the hood, both in a 620 hp (460 kW) street version, which runs on premium gasoline, and a 720 hp (540 kW) version, which requires racing fuel. Mopar (Chrysler) recently released the 528 Hemi (8. Mopar (short for MO tor PAR ts is the automobile parts and service arm of Chrysler LLC. Chrysler LLC is an American Automobile manufacturer that has been producing Automobiles since 1925 7L) and 540 (8. 8L) crate engines. Both of these incorporate modern hardened metals and are able to run on unleaded gasoline.

Smaller V8 engines are known as small-blocks; some members of small-block engine families may exceed 6 L, blurring the distinction somewhat. The cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting (or sometimes an assembly of modules containing cylindrically bored holes for the Pistons of a multi-cylinder The distinction came about in the early 1960s when the large full-size cars needed a bigger V8 than the smaller mid-size and compact cars. A full-size car is a Marketing term used in North America for an Automobile larger than a Mid-size car. A mid-size car (occasionally referred to as an intermediate) is the North American and Australian term for an Automobile with a size between A compact (North America small family (European or c-segment car is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini Before that, manufacturers normally had only one V8 engine line.

The term is normally used only for engines from the "Big Three" (Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler Corporation) since the other companies did not keep two V8 engine size families. Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following General Motors Corporation ( GM) ( is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in 1908 and headquartered in the United States. Chrysler LLC is an American Automobile manufacturer that has been producing Automobiles since 1925

Big-block V8s were most commonly used in full-size and luxury cars, rather than performance vehicles. A full-size car is a Marketing term used in North America for an Automobile larger than a Mid-size car. Luxury vehicle is a marketing term for a vehicle that provides luxury &mdash that which is beyond strict necessity &mdash in exchange for increased cost to the buyer Thus, they were commonly tuned and built for smoothness and low-end power to get heavy cars rolling and effortlessly cruising. In Physics, power (symbol P) is the rate at which work is performed or energy is transmitted or the amount of energy required or expended for Many big-block engines were less technically sophisticated than their small-block counterparts, and their power-to-weight ratios were often lower. Power-to-weight ratio (specific power is a calculation commonly applied to Engines and other mobile power sources to enable the comparison of one unit or design to another Today big-block engines are used primarily in racing.

However, they did see performance applications. Performance-tuned big-blocks were used in NASCAR racing, and homologation requirements saw these engines sold for road use. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing ( NASCAR) is the largest sanctioning body of Stock cars in the United States. Homologation is a technical term derived from the Greek homologeo (ὁμολογέω for "to agree" which is generally used in English to signify Because of NASCAR's 7 L engine size limit, many high-performance big-block engines, like the Chevrolet's 427, Ford's 429, and Chrysler's 426 Hemi engines, were built to this size. A Chrysler Hemi engine, known by the trademark Hemi, is an Internal combustion engine built by Chrysler that utilizes a hemispherical In the mid to late 1960s, the explosion of the muscle car market saw performance big-blocks fitted to intermediate-size cars. Some used derivatives of the racing engines, but in addition performance versions of former luxury motors were produced.

After the 1973 oil crisis, the days of the big-block in passenger cars were numbered. The 1973 oil crisis began on October 17 1973 when the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC consisting of the Arab members of By the end of the 1970s, they were no longer to be found. However, these engines remained in use in pickup trucks and other non-car uses. A pickup truck is a light Motor vehicle with an open-top rear cargo area which is almost always separated from the cab to allow for chassis flex when carrying or pulling Currently, only GM offers big-block V8s in its trucks; Ford and Chrysler essentially replaced their big-blocks with stretched V10 versions of their small-block engines in the early to mid 1990s. A V10 engine is a V engine with 10 cylinders in two banks of five

Ford

Ford does not categorize its engines using the big/small block nomenclature. Rather, Ford literature distinguishes engine by its series, or family. Enthusiasts unaware of this fine point will nonetheless classify the larger families as big block engines. Third-party equipment vendors, following suit, have adopted the practice as well. [1]

• Ford FE series - this family includes engines as small as 332 ci. The Ford FE engine was a Ford V8 engine used in vehicles sold in the North American market between 1958 and 1976
• Ford 385 series - successor to the FE family

General Motors

• Chevrolet Big-Block engine
• Cadillac V8 engine

Chrysler

• Chrysler B engine
• Chrysler RB engine
• Chrysler Hemi engine

Small-block

A small-block engine is a North American V8 in a family of engines which generally have less than 6 liters (360 in³) of displacement, although some derivatives have grown larger (up to 427 in³, 7. The Ford 385 engine family (the name coming from the 385 inch crankshaft stroke of the 460 V8 was the American Ford Motor Company 's final Big block V8 "Big block" is the term used to describe the large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s Cadillac was the first Automobile maker to mass produce a V8 engine Chrysler 's B engine was a Big-block V8 which replaced the early Chrysler FirePower engine in 1958 The RB engine is a Big-block V8 engine from Chrysler. It first appeared in 1959 and was a raised-deck (taller version of the Chrysler B engine A Chrysler Hemi engine, known by the trademark Hemi, is an Internal combustion engine built by Chrysler that utilizes a hemispherical A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the Crankcase in two banks of four cylinders in most cases set at a right angle to each other Engine displacement is defined as the total Volume of air/fuel mixture an Engine can draw in during one complete engine cycle it is normally stated in Cubic 0 L). A 505in³, 8. 3 L V10 is produced by Chrysler, a derivative of the LA engines. The LA engine ( Light A engine was an evolution of the Small-block Plymouth polyspheric-head A engine Larger families of engines are called big-blocks. The cylinder block or engine block is a machined casting (or sometimes an assembly of modules containing cylindrically bored holes for the Pistons of a multi-cylinder The distinction came about in the late 1950s when the large full-size cars needed a bigger V8 than the smaller mid-size and compact cars - though consumers wanted a V8 under the hood, the recession of the late 1950s provided some of the earliest American awareness of fuel economy. A full-size car is a Marketing term used in North America for an Automobile larger than a Mid-size car. A mid-size car (occasionally referred to as an intermediate) is the North American and Australian term for an Automobile with a size between A compact (North America small family (European or c-segment car is a classification of cars which are larger than a supermini A recession is a contraction phase of the Business cycle. The U Prior to that point, manufacturers normally had only one V8 engine line.

The term is normally used only for engines from the "Big Three" (Ford Motor Company, General Motors, and Chrysler Corporation) since the other companies did not keep two V8 engine size families. Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following General Motors Corporation ( GM) ( is a multinational automobile manufacturer founded in 1908 and headquartered in the United States. Chrysler LLC is an American Automobile manufacturer that has been producing Automobiles since 1925 However, it is sometimes used for the more modern and compact V8s produced by others, such as Studebaker. Studebaker Corporation, or simply Studebaker, was a United States Wagon and Automobile manufacturer based in

The term "block" refers to a piston engine cylinder block, which is the lower portion of a piston engine containing the pistons and cylinder bores. A piston is a component of Reciprocating engines Pumps and Gas compressors It is located in a cylinder and is made gas-tight by Piston A cylinder is the central working part of a Reciprocating engine, the space in which a Piston travels

Although a small-block V8 generally has a smaller displacement than the equivalent big-block, a small-block engine can be built to develop significant amounts of power. Additionally, many small-block engines were more advanced technologically than their big-block counterparts, and were much lighter and smaller. Innovations such as aluminum heads and blocks generally came first to small-blocks. From a new car buyer's standpoint, they tended to offer an acceptable compromise between horsepower and economy, so they were a popular option instead of the basic I6 or V6 engine base model. The straight-6 or inline-6 engine (often abbreviated I6 or L6) is a six cylinder Internal combustion engine with all six cylinders A V6 engine is a V engine with six cylinders mounted on the Crankcase in two banks of three cylinders Because of their attractive combination of popularity (and therefore low-cost availability) coupled with good performance, good fuel economy and light weight, they were often preferred in racing and sporting applications. Many hot rods and custom cars are fitted with small-block V8s, particularly the GM (Chevrolet) 350 engine and the Ford 351 Windsor. Hot rods are typically American cars with large engines modified for linear speed A custom car is a passenger vehicle that has been modified in either of the following two ways

There are some cases in which small-blocks seem to encroach upon big-block displacements; in these cases it is most important to keep in mind that small-block and big-block refer to engine families, not simply displacements. For example, engines ranging from the 4. 8 L Vortec 4800 to the 7. I4 2200 The Vortec 2200 (RPO codes L43 and LN2) is a OHV Straight-4 Truck engine 0 L LS7 are all GM small block V8s, and share the same general external dimensions. The LS series is a new design intended as the only V-8 engine utilized in General Motors ' line of RWD cars and trucks The LS7 achieves enormous displacement by having a very large bore and stroke in the same compact block as previous small-blocks, but has very little space between cylinders. This would not be acceptable in a truck engine, and was not possible forty years ago. As a result, 7. 0 L is a displacement ordinarily reserved for big-blocks, which can achieve it with fewer compromises in reliability and less engineering effort. A 7. 0 L big block, like the 427 Chevy first seen in 1966 Corvettes, is a much larger engine externally and shares external dimesions with engines ranging from the 6. "Big block" is the term used to describe the large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s 5 L 396 to the 8. "Big block" is the term used to describe the large displacement V8 engines that were developed in the USA during the 1950s and 1960s 1 L Vortec 8100. I4 2200 The Vortec 2200 (RPO codes L43 and LN2) is a OHV Straight-4 Truck engine

Ford

Ford does not categorize its engines using the big/small block nomenclature. Ford Motor Company is an American Multinational corporation and the world's fourth largest automaker based on Worldwide vehicle sales, following Rather, Ford literature distinguishes engine by its series, or family. Enthusiasts unaware of this fine point will nonetheless classify the smaller families as small block engines. Third-party equipment vendors, following suit, have taken up the practice as well. [2]

• Ford Y-block family (1954-1962)
• Ford Windsor or 90 degree family (1962-2000)
• Ford 335 series (AKA Ford Cleveland engine, also erroneously referred to as "mid block", because some variants mate to the bell housings for larger displacement families. The Y-block engine is an Overhead valve V8 Automobile Piston engine from Ford Motor Company. The Windsor engine is a 90-degree Small-block V8 from Ford Motor Company. The Ford 335 engine family were a group of small-block V8 engines built by the Ford Motor Company between 1970 and 1982 ) (1970-1982)
• Ford Modular engine

GM

General Motors small-block V8s include:

• GM Small-Block engine - Generation I chevy small-block 1955-2003
• Oldsmobile V8 engine - Oldsmobile small-block 1964-1990
• GM LT engine - Generation II small-block
• LT5 - DOHC 4-valve small-block from Lotus/Mercury Marine
• GM Premium V engine - Cadillac Northstar and derived engines
• GM LS engine - Generation III and IV small-block

Chrysler

Chrysler Corporation small-blocks include:

• Chrysler A engine - (1956-1966) first generation small-block
• Chrysler LA engine - (1964-) second generation small-block
• Chrysler PowerTech engine - (1999-) Jeep-developed replacement for LA
• Chrysler Modern Hemi engine - (2002-)

See also

• Head gasket
• Freeze plug
• crankshaft

References

1. ^ Motortrend

External links

• Cylinder block highlight: Hypervideo showing construction and operation of a four cylinder internal combustion engine courtesy of Ford Motor Company