We ran a dry sump in one of the race boats.
There are some pretty dramatic advantages above and beyond the obvious.
A dry sump is a scavenging feed system, this means the oil used to lubricate the motor is literally "sucked" from the motor. It has long been thought that this pulling of the oil form the motor to a ventilated tank help reduce crankcase pressure considerably. While this is somewhat true, it really depends on how large and fast your scavenging pump(s) are.
Another advantage is oil temperature control, since the oil is not allowed to sit in a hot engine block and get the snot whipped out of it by the crankshaft, the temperatures are much cooler than would normally be.
The oil capacity is virtually unlimited with a dry sump.
You can mount the engine much lower in the boat with a dry sump because of the minimalistic pan.
Oil changes are a breeze.
The negatives are the costs, the real estate they eat up, the time it takes to warm the oil up on start up, the potential for a hundred new oil leaks because of all the plumbing, they rely on a belt driven pump.
I'm sure I can go on, but the long story shortened is, you really don't gain all that much when you really boil it down.
They are really cool to look at though.
GT
