I think just about all bike engines except for Ducatis are wet sump. And many wet sump engines are just fine because the oil pickups are always covered by oil (unless your bike is upside-down).

I believe Aprilia has dry sumps too.

 

Other Dry Sump bikes:

Some BMW's
XR650

 

isnt DIY servicing more difficult on a dry sump engine?

 

Dry sump is the way to go if you want the highest performance. I think pretty much all race cars utilize a dry sump.

 

Dry sump and wet sump are very similar.

Wet sump pumps the oil from the bottom of the engine directly to the top of the engine.
Dry sump pumps the oil from the bottom of the engine to a reservoir. Reservoir pumps to the top of the engine.

Actually they are not pumps.
A dry sump is a remote tank that oil is stored in. It has a check valve that prevents oil tank drain down into ("wet sumping") when the engine isn't running. It has a 2 stage oil pump to feed(or blow) the oil through the system and uses the check vavle to prevent the wet sumping.
A wet sump is where the oil is stored in the crankcase, gravity is used to feed the oil back to the sump and uses only one oil pump, which can be a plunger, gear, or trochoid. It has a pressure relief valve that is either in or around the oil pump and helps maintain max pressure. And it uses an oil filter. Wet sumps and wheelies dont mix real well. Especially if the wheelies are done ALOT. And dry sumps are very efficient for race bikes and high performance bikes.

 

My understanding of dry sumps has always been they are not really optimal for normal street riding/driving. For a high performance application they are good but not commuting and that such. Is that wrong?

 

Yeah, a dry sump system is better always. Well, a well designed dry sump system is.

What a dry sump does nearly eliminate the oil pan, in its place goes a shallow pan, usually with two or three pickups. These pickups go to a pump which then goes to a swirl pot/sump tank, then back into the engine (simplified).

What this does is eliminate the problem of the oil sloshing around and un covering the oil pickup (it keeps oil pressure constant). Also, like people said, it allows the engine to be lowered.

The reason you do not see it on most bikes are also the cons of the system - price and complexity (which means if not designed and put together well, it can be less reliable). You add like 15 more points of failure to the oiling system (connections, pumps, tank). Furthermore, it can add some weight. One FSAE team this year did not finish endurance because their pump inlet line on their dry sump system came apart spilling oil all over the track.

 

I dont think they are good for normal street riding. Excellent for racing.

 

hardley ablesons are dry sump

 

Dry sump (as said above) is basicly using a seperate oil tank instead of a pan under the engine.

Pros: larger oil capacity, better oil temp control, more chances for filtration.....

Cons: More complexity (requires multiple oil pumps and external lines), greater chance for leaks, generally more weight....

 

I know the Aprilia RSV and Tuono are dry sumps. Not sure about the others.

Why would a dry sump system be bad for "normal street riding" and "commuting and such"??? If it's a superior lubrication system that's robust enough for racing (and it is), it seems to me that it would be great for any normal use as well. It maybe overkill for normal riding, but it's certainly NOT a bad thing.

 

Do all Sv's suffer from oil starvation due to wheelies, or did Suzuki correct this in later models? Just curious because i own an 01

 

I heard it was corrected in the later models or maybe 2nd gens, but research it first, my info on that came from a friend and that was the only time I heard it.

 

Do all Sv's suffer from oil starvation due to wheelies, or did Suzuki correct this in later models? Just curious because i own an 01

Addressed but, not completely corrected.

 

Just found this thread after cruising around for dry sump conversion info, and thought I'd make a correction/addition to this 6 year old thing:

The single largest justification for a dry sump is that the center of gravity can be lowered significantly for the bike as a whole. Seeing as though the engine is a pretty large part of the bike mass-wise, and the wet sump oil pans are usually 2-3 inches deep/tall, getting rid of that 2-3 inches drops the CG equivalently. The lower the CG, the quicker the bike can transition to/from lean, therefore making it faster in corners. Dun

 

Double A, maybe I am just groggy from a late night, but I thought that if the oil is in the engine and the pan is below the engine, but a dry sump has the oil container behind engine and above swingarm, as I think is the case for Harley's (correct me if wrong, I have not researched thoroughly) that wet sump will have the lower CG, since the weight of the oil is being carried lower to the ground. The way you explained it sounded like you swapped dry and wet.

 

. The way you explained it sounded like you swapped dry and wet.

By removing the volume required to accomodate the wet sump, the rest of the engine (crank and above) can be lower in the chassis without affecting ground clearance. Moving the oil to a dry sump tank somewhere in line with the engine itself will not raise the CG (oil is has generally less mass than the same volume of alloy) and the center of mass would be lower (albeit setretched out along the longditudinal axis of the bike.)

 

Fez,
You are correct that the mass of the oil will most likely move back and up but the mass of the engine will move down. The movement of the engine mass (which is denser and greater) will have a more positive effect than the oil will have negative.