Dry sump engine: operation and principle of operation

Content

How dry sump lubrication works
Pros and cons
Which cars have a dry sump?

While the vast majority of cars have a wet sump system, many motorcycles and some high performance cars use a different device called a dry sump. Let's figure out together what this means and what is meant ...

How dry sump lubrication works

Here roughly oil path in such a system:

The oil is stored in a tank next to the engine.
The oil pump sucks in oil to send it to the oil filter.
Freshly filtered oil is directed to various moving parts of the engine for lubrication (crankshaft, pistons, valves, etc.).
Channels cause the oil to finally sink back into the sump
They are sucked in and returned to the radiator.
The cooled oil returns to its starting point: the reservoir.

Pros and cons

Advantages:

Increased efficiency of a system that provides constant lubrication despite vehicle movements (which is why this system is used for aircraft engines), which is even more practical during competition. In a wet sump, oil splashing may prevent oil refueling and the engine will not receive oil for a short period of time.
Since the tank is no longer in a large casing attached to the base of the engine, the latter (engine) is therefore lower, which then allows it to be placed lower to reduce the overall center of gravity of the vehicle.
Helps prevent oil from splashing (getting) onto the crankshaft as this is a source of “power loss”. Indeed, the engine loses energy due to "oil blows" through the crankshaft.

Disadvantages:

The system is more expensive because it is more complex: it is necessary to cool the oil, because it is the wet sump that performs this task on other types of engines.
This is not only more expensive, but also increases the likelihood of breakage.

Which cars have a dry sump?

There are prestigious cars like regular supercars: Porsche, Ferrari, etc. This system is also found on some exceptional engines that embody some very high standard German sedans and which are more sold in the USA (for example, large FSI units from Audi ). The twin-turbo AMG V8 engine is dry too. On the other hand, this is not the case for the M3, regardless of generation.

On the other hand, and I repeat myself, motorcycles are mostly equipped with it, of course, for reasons related to the large movements of the latter during use (oblique turns), thus avoiding any detachment / removal of the lubricant.