procyon

It's my understanding that both are to be built in the same building. The old 2.0L Zetec plant was cleared out for the diesels while the 1.8/2.0/2.3/2.5L I4 is built in a building next door.

CEP2 produces the D30 RFF and D30 DAMB. There are two lines. CEP1 temporarily made the D30 for Ford 500/Freestyle/Montego. It was retooled last year and had a launch build of the D35. However, it was determined that millions of dollars could be saved if CEP1 shut back down and let LEP make all the D35 until sometime this year where the CEP1 D35 line would start back up. The D35 engine demand wasn't there yet to support both plants operating. That's changing as more vehicles with D35/D37 go into production.

It's an upgraded 2.3L I4 with bigger bore and longer stroke.

D30 PIP is an RFF design. Slightly higher compression ratio. Flex fuel. Shortblock is nearly the same except for deck ht and piston tweaks. The head and intake is where the real changes were made. VCT on intake but totally new & better design. Port injection.

Lima or Cleveland #1, I can't remember which. But only one will do D35 and D37.

RFF = Roller Finger Follower. The RFF is like a lever arm that is pushed down in the middle by the cam lobe. One end rests on the valve tip. The other end rests on the hydraulic lifter which takes up slack. DAMB = Direct Acting Mechanical Bucket. There is basically a bucket which sits on top of the valve. A shim is placed in between the bucket and cam lobe. The lobe pushes directly down on the shim to open the valve. The Automotive Rebuilder article is incorrect. The Mazda webpage is right and wrong at the same time. They say that the 3.0L Mazda6 engine has both roller finger cam followers and bucket style tappets.

Mazda didn't do all that much to the heads. The only thing that changed from a 2001 Taurus 3.0L head to a 2003 Mazda6 3.0L head was moving the long cam for the water pump drive from the LH intake to the LH exhaust, adding a few more valve cover bolts, and adding a few holes to the front of the head to mount & feed oil to the VCT spiders. No change to combustion chamber or valves. Sometimes it seems that Mazda likes to make it look like they redesigned the D30 when it's more like they changed a few things to make it fit in their engine bay.

Why would they need to import them from the USA? They build Mazda6s alongside Mustangs at the Auto Alliance plant in Flat Rock, MI.

The D30 DAMB will continue for a couple more model years after the D30 RFF PIP launches. The D30 RFF line at Cleveland Engine Plant#1 has already converted over to D35 and had it's launch a couple months ago. Unfortunately, it was determined that temporarily halting production of D35 at CEP1 would save a few tens of millions of dollars since the D35 line at Lima Engine Plant had the capacity to build all that is needed now. I think they built engines for about one week. Kinda disappointing but a few tens of millions helps a bit with the current state of the company. The D35 line at CEP1 will start back up I think early next year. The D30 line at CEP2 will start production of D30 RFF PIP next year and slowly phase out the D30 RFF Non-PIP as the vehicles launch. Not all vehicle programs were able to switch over to D30 RFF PIP at the same time due to manpower/testing/calibration constraints.

The Mazda6 3.0L is not a DAMB D30. It is the RFF version. In fact, the Fusion uses the same camshafts and heads as the Mazda6. Only Jaguar have the Lincoln LS have used the DAMB D30. All DAMB D30s have had intake VCT. The Mazda6 and Fusion are the only RFF D30s with VCT (intake). For reference, the specs for the 3.0L on the Mazda USA webpage list it as having hydraulic lifters while the 2.3L I4 has mechanical lifters as expected. http://www.mazdausa.com/MusaWeb/displayPag...vehicleCode=M6H