If you’ve never heard of it then chances are you don’t need one. Dry sump oil systems are god’s gift to man. ALL race engines use some form of it, but even your production based engine can benefit from a dry sump system if your car’s factory oil system cannot keep up with your car’s capabilities. Some platforms that have crappy factory wet sump systems are the Nissan Skyline GT-R, Subaru Impreza WRX/STi, Toyota Supra and the Mitsubishi EVO 1-50. Sure, custom pickups, baffles, trap doors, and Accusumps are great for a track day/club racing car, but most all out serious effort cars will require a dry sump. I made the mistake of thinking a wet sump oil system with all the aforementioned bells and whistles would be adequate, but I lost a $20k engine thinking that. This is your chance to learn from my mistake. After going to a dry sump, the XS GT-R had absolutely ZERO lubrication problems. If you are building a serious effort car and have the budget, a properly designed dry sump system is the ultimate in lubrication. Remember, oil is to an engine, what blood is to the human body. I know some guys who go out and race their cars knowing they might loose an engine due to oil starvation. I don’t see the logic in that. They’ll spend an extra $1200 on that 3.5″ exhaust in case they want to make 800hp in the future, but they won’t spend the extra money on a dry sump system. Lame? Totally.
Dry sumps can benefit both drag and road race cars that live in high G situations. For an excellent description of a dry sump system, check this page out. For those of you who have serious cars, a dry sump is a must. In summary, a dry sump system eliminates the possibility of oil starvation due to oil sloshing, eliminates the possibility of pump cavitation, eliminates air bubbles in the oil by means of either an air/oil separator or baffles in the tank, and allows your engine’s crankcase to operate in a vacuum for increased horsepower by eliminating windage. A crankshaft, rods, and pistons operating in a vacuum mean that they are not subject to the laws of aerodynamics since there is no wind resistance in a vacuum. All this provides your engine with trouble free lubrication and increased horsepower.
It has been over 15 years since Cosworth has manufactured a pump for use on a non-Cosworth designed engine, but for those of you who remember the legendary Cosworth Slimline pump, you’ll also remember that it was THE pump to use back in the day. This day was actually way before my time since the Slimline pump went out of production before I was old enough to legally drive, but older guys like Mr. Mike Kojima, told me that even TRD used the Slimline. Anyhow, we’ve designed a new 2 stage ultra wide gerotor scavenge pump (wider than 3 standard width rotors) that will handle just about any 4 cylinder. In the case of the Subaru EJ, the dry sump system will be used in conjunction with a Cosworth high volume stock location pressure pump (based on the factory casting), billet CNC oil pan (“machined from solid” for you Brits), bespoke (another Brit word) bracket, pump drive, and HTD belt. The customer will have to fit his own tank, filters, coolers, and hoses.
The system should be available toward the end of summer so don’t pick up the phone just yet. Imagine, a trouble free day at the track with your Subaru: no oil pumping out of the valve covers, 15 baffled catch cans, hoses running everywhere, and checking the oil level every 5 laps. An enjoyable day at the track is when all you have to do is drive and smoke that dick head that thinks he’s bad ass because he’s got some Brembo GT Monoblock brakes. Yeah, you know its fun to smoke those dicks. Anyhow, future applications include the EVO X. If you guys have any other applications you want, let me know!