Economists and stock market analysts look to leading indicators to divine the future, but I have discovered a more accurate way to predict what will happen. I simply listen to my customers. The trend is clearly toward bigger, more powerful engines for all types of sportsman racing.
I can say categorically that interest in bigger engines is expanding (pardon the pun). While a 502 or 522-cubic-inch engine was once considered a big-inch powerplant, I now frequently field calls from racers asking about 615 and 632-cubic-inch motors. With the introduction of a new generation of Pro Stock-style CNC-ported cylinder heads, horsepower levels are climbing faster than the cost of electricity in California.
In this era of more powerful, more sophisticated sportsman engines, I am advising my customers to seriously consider the benefits of a dry-sump oiling system. A dry-sump lubrication system has four major advantages over a wet-sump system: increased power, improved reliability, better cooling, and enhanced safety.
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As piston displacement increases, so does the volume of air displaced inside an engine's crankcase. A piston displaces an equal volume of air both above and below itself with every crankshaft revolution. For example, a 632-cubic-inch big-block running at 8,000 rpm moves more than 2,900 cubic feet of air per minute inside its crankcase. As one piston moves downward in its cylinder, another moves upward, so the total volume inside the crankcase and oil pan remains constant - but this rapid movement of air from side to side and front to back, combined with the rapidly spinning crankshaft assemble, creates a hurricane of incredible intensity inside the engine.
You can imagine the effect this hurricane has on the oil in a wet-sump system. Even with baffles and windage trays, the oil around the pickup is constantly buffeted by the air displaced by the pistons. The gale forces created by the rise and fall of pistons No. 7 and 8 can literally whip the oil in a wet-sump reservoir into a froth. The large counterweights that are required to balance a stroker crank also act as huge fans that churn the oil like a blender.
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