Dry Sump Setup

[jsteeb]

Hi everyone.

I've been planning to run the Lynx as a dry sump setup, but I can't seem to find an oil tank I can package in my Lynx. I'm curious if there is a major performance or reliability advantage with dry vs wet? I know a dry sump isn't required by the rules, but if there is a substantial engine reliability advantage........

I'm also curious what size oil lines everybody is running. It looks like SR stocks -8 fittings for the dry sump pump. Jim (if you happen to read this), and everybody else....do you all plumb the entire system in -8ish? I know it's not a complicated dry sump setup, but when I built my VEE I didn't ask enough questions and had a lot of teething issues.

Oh...do we need that crank pulley for anything in particular? I'm not sure if removing it will gain me any room in front of the engine, but space is quickly becoming a high demand commodity!

I think that's it for now. I have oil tanks from an old Crosle and a Carbir S2000 at work....let's hope one of them will package.....

[CAM]

Jason,

From my point of view the dry sump was more for reliability than performance, there is a slight performance advantage from using a dry sump about 1 or 2 horse power. From our data we were seeing oil pressure in the single digits due to G loading under breaking & in corners with the wet sump, we were also seeing pressure problems from excessive foaming as well not much room in the case, It was just a matter of time before oil pressure problems occured, some tracks are worse than others. You can run a wet sump engine but you must carefully watch the oil level after each session and pressure data.

As far as plumbing we are using -8 lines from the pump to the tank. One of our Evolutions has been fitted with a purpose built 5 quart set up and seems to have stable oil pressure. Greg Rice might be able to help you with a wet sump set up, as he seemed to have his system figured out better than most. There are pictures posted of his case windage trey set up, wet sump, and the Evolution dry sump initial set up under the dry sump discussion thread.

I know a lynx is tight but IMO you would be better off with a dry sump system if at all possible, you will save on replacement oil and paper towels, not to mention engine failures.

Carl

[don_smith]

Jason;
I am running dry sump in both of my cars, a Zink Z18b and a lynx B.
I fabricated a roughly triangular tank that is about 2.5 inches thick that fits between the fire wall and the engine and provides about
1 gal of tank capacity. I will have to remove the tank from the lynx this weekend for an unrelated problem, and will post pics then to give you a better idea as to what the design looks like. The most critical design points to be aware of are shape of tank and baffling to control oil slosh, and venting to prevent the oil/air froth from being blown into the catch tank in significant amounts, reducing your capacity in the process.
Overall, I lost about 2 inches in legroom in both cars.

Don Smith

[SR Racing]

I've been planning to run the Lynx as a dry sump setup, but I can't seem to find an oil tank I can package in my Lynx......

Jason,

We are making up custom dry sump tanks that are very reasonable. (All aluminum, with 3 fittings and cap.(also a 1/8 NPT for your oil temp sender) If you can give us dimensions we can give you an estimate. We can usually get them out within the week.

Yes -8 fittings for all the oil lines. Yuo can cut the pulley down to most any dimension you need, but you can't remove it. It has a worm gear on it that keeps oil in the case. Without the pulley you would just have an open hole and oil would pour out under braking.

Like Carl says, I would certainly want to use a dry sump system. We are seeing engines that have been using them with literally no wear on the bearings, they don't leak anywhere, they run much cooler and do develop a bit more HP.

Jim
SR

[RGU]

Jason,

It depended a lot on the track whether you would lose oil pressure with a wet sump. Road America and Grattan are bad. With a conventional FV style wet sump set up with the Aim dash always watching OP we never had a problem at Nelson or Beaver. As Carl pointed out the HP penalty is not huge so why not try it out at Nelson. They have a very nice test day before the event and I’d wager you would find a number of other issues before the wet sump would ever be any concern.

[77fmod]

Carl,
You referenced a dry sump discussion thread in your previous post. Could you please direct me to the location of that thread? Has it been deleted?
Thanks much.

Johnny B.