Just curious if anyone has ever done a dry sump oil system on thier LT1 and what kind of gain did you see from converting over? Is there a complete system out there or would this have to be something custom done to work?

 

Definitely a custom job...I don't know of anyone who has done it with an LT1 block...

 

Custom job for sure. You need to ask yourself if the added capacity and other benefits are worth the added complexity and weight. If I remember correctly, most dry sump systems are 10+ quarts on average.

 

Of course, it ca be done. I've seen SBC's with it in custom built race cars.

However,

The major advantages of a dry sump system are 1) constant lubrication indepedent of attitude of the car...no oil surging away from the pick-up and 2) the minimization of the depth of the oil pan allowing you to lower the engine in the frame..yielding a lower center of gravity.

#1 can be adequately handled with a baffled oil pan, and,

To accomplish #2 you'd have a pretty serious engineering job ahead of you lowering the engine and keeping a 'correct' pinion angle, etc.

While it can be done it probably isn't worth it for anything less than a race car...

 

I have a dry sump on mine. It's definitely a major project. If you're talking about HP gains, I don't have before/after numbers as I did it along with my motor rebuild but the engine sims said it was only worth about 10HP on my 476RWHP build. For really high HP motors it would be worth more.

It's great not having to worry about oil pressure in sustained turns on the road course, but it's really overkill for everything short of a full track car. For me it was just as much about the challenge of the project to fit the system in a street C4.