Dry-sump Lubrication System

[Stallion]

What exactly does that mean? I'm reading about the Ferrari Enzo and the engine specs. Just curious as to what they are talking about with a dry-sump lubrication system.

 

[JohnZ]

Normal production cars use a "wet-sump" oil system, where the oil pan is the reservoir for the engine's oil supply. Many race cars use a "dry-sump" oil system, where the oil pan is much shallower, and has several stages of external pumps that continuously evacuate the oil from the pan and pump it (usually through a cooler) to an external tank, where it's de-aerated and supplies the also-externally-mounted oil pressure pump, which feeds pressurized oil to the engine internals. A conventional "wet-sump" system usually holds only 4 or 5 quarts, and specialized oil pan designs with baffles, trap doors, etc. must be used for high-performance applications to maintain an oil supply at the pump pickup during high-G maneuvers. The (VERY expensive) "dry-sump" system has the advantage of maintaining constant oil supply (and therefore oil pressure) under any kind of high-G situation, and the separate oil tank usually holds 10-15 quarts of oil - that system makes for much more effective oil de-aeration and cooling.

All serious race cars use "dry-sump" oil systems (NASCAR, Champ Car, IRL, road-racers, etc.).

 

[Ken]

... (VERY expensive) "dry-sump" system

Oh yeah, not to mention the fact that you need room for all that oil. Racecars usually don't have interiors so it's not a problem with them, but a street car such as the Ferrari or Porsche had to find a place to put 'em. That's one of the reasons they don't have much cargo area, TR.

 

[Jack]

Not too many Ferrari's around for you to look closely at motor and compare-contrast. So ... take a look at just about any Harley V-Twin (I dunno about the V-Rod) but ALL other HD V-Twins are DRY SUMP ... you can see the feed and return lines coursing between engine and oil tank. Contrast that with a Jap bike as virtually all are WET SUMP. Also, all piston airplane motors I've seen are DRY SUMP ... oil lines between motor and a tank.

 

[Mac]

Then, of course, there's the "integrated dry sump" being offered in the current Porsche 911...

-Mac

 

[JohnZ]

My '68 Ferrari 330GTC was "wet-sump", with a 10-quart pan and dual filters; my '73 Ferrari Daytona Spyder was "dry-sump", with a remote 12-quart oil tank mounted vertically in the rear corner of the engine compartment and dual filters. True dry-sump oil systems are very rare these days due to their cost and complexity.