A few day s ago I was helping my buddy change the oil in his new YZF-450 quad and after a few minutes of him trying to tell me that it was a "cold pump" oil system, I just said whatever and we got started. After reading his manual we, got started on the change and I noticed that there were 2 different oil drain plugs (crank and reservoir tank) and sat back and noticed that it had a "dry sump" system. After making fun of him for a minute, I started to think, why don't modern street bikes use this? I guess it's probably because what we have works well enough and the oil is low in the deep pans, which is good for weight placement. But his dry sump setup only uses about 1 3/4 quarts of oil, so I would think they could make a system that weighs the same with the lack of the extra quart and a half and still be better, no? Any one care to comment?

 

One of the reasons is because our engines run so hot that both the coolant and the oil need to be cooled. The oil helps keep internal temperature down. the more you have the better it works. there is an oil cooler on the 600RR as well to help regulate that temperature. It's right next to the oil filter. most high performance motorcycles have one as well. this enables the motorcycle to disperse more heat in greater capacity.

 

YZF450 = four valves, one cam, one piston, one rod, and a very small crank. 1 3/4 qts of oil is alot oil for a single cylindar engine. Our bikes use just a little morethan threeqts and have four times the moving parts. I think that quad also uses a seperate transmission oil. Two oils for two jobs. They still use dry sumps on DRZ, XR, some KTM or anything dualsport I guess. Dry sump is a very good system to allow the crank to spin freely to make a little more power but kinda pointless for any street bike or car with more than one cylindar. Unless it's a 911 turbo or a ZO6.

 

Then i guess it would blow your mind that the BRP Outlander 400 takes over 3 qts of oil...

 

That is alot of oil too. Not that it's unheard of but it still is alot. I've done services on 993 911T, 996 911T and they use just over 12qts on 3.6l engines. Boxsters/S take 10 qts on 2.5/2.7l engines. Go figure a TDI Touareg uses just under 11qts (I hope)and it's 5l.My RSX takes 6qts and it's 2l. I guess engine oil use is all relative to the manufacture and the stress it will endure. Especialy if I'm driving here comes the stress.

 

Wow! I never knew that, learn sumthin err day........

 

The Cadilac Northstar takes like 14qts.

MDFF

 

Rockets/cycles don't need a dry sump because 1: they lean over, so oil always stays to the bottom of the pan; 2: the pan is so deep, there are no windage losses (HP losses)to churning the crank around in the oil.

 

Ahh, yes. Those were more or less the answers I was looking for. Kind of interesting how my 6.6L V8 only uses 7qts. And that’s with a large capacity, good trap door style pan.

 

Dry sumps are nothing new to motorcycles at all. Harleys, Indians, the old British bikes(Triumph, BSA, Norton, etc.), Honda 750from 1969-1978 had it. It does serve a worthwhile purpose, but it comes at a cost as well. It does get the oil away from the engine, giving it a chance to cool, but this is also on air cooled bikes. Liguid cooled bikes get the advantage of keeping the engine at a constant operating temperature, unrelated to the ambient air temp, by using a thermostat to control the coolant temp. It also allows the lowering of the center of gravity, since wet sump motors obviously have their oil below the engine. Dry sump motors have their oil away from the engine and higher in the frame. So it increases the center of gravity. Both engines have oil pumps, but the dry sump engine has additional external oil related componets like the oil tank, oil lines to transfer oil and valves to control the oil from gravitating from the tank and flooding the crankcase (called wet sumping). These external componets also have the ability to leak, staining the manufactures reputation. Both have great worth while advantages, but another one is cost. It is cheaper tobuild a wet sump motor than a dry sump motor. Though the liguid cooled motor,substituted the expense of liguid cooling componets,at the cost of creating a more reliable motor.