Wet Sump Or Dry Sump - Keeping The Beast Alive

Lets face it, no one wants go through the pain of blowing an engine. Not only does it ruin your day of fun but it is an expensive exercise to get your machine back in action. The most common form of engine failure besides overheating is lack of lubrication. Lets look at how we are going to prevent this with the GSXR…

Although the 1300cc Hayabusa engine is an engineering masterpiece, when it comes to 4 wheel application there are some bases that need to be covered to ensure a long, happy life for your busa engine. When using the engine in an off road application (or any automotive application for that matter) you want to get the motor mounted as low as possible in the chassis to keep the center of gravity at a minimum. We’ve found that the GSXR has a rather deep oil sump, which is perfectly fine in a road bike but a little too big and bulky for my liking in the buggy.

Coupled with this is the oil deliverability issues that many motorcycle engined cars face (mostly track cars that are capable of high lateral g force). During cornering the lateral force produced by a high powered track car can be enough to make your stomach turn, so have a think about what all the oil in that engine is doing? Exactly! There’s a chance of oil starvation which is usually not encountered in a stock road bike, and when you have no oil at 10,000 rpm…

Kaaabooooom!

But there is some good news. There are a few specialist workshops that are producing aftermarket sumps for the GSXR which will solve this problem we face and while there not the cheapest parts on the planet, when you consider the price of fixing a seized engine, i think you’ll agree that it’s money well spent.

Option 1

The Low Profile Billet Sump

At around $650 this billet sump is a great alternative to the stock unit and is perfect for high HP applications and motorcycle engine powered cars. Due to its unique ’swinging pick up arm’ the engine is all but guaranteed to be supplied with a continual flow of oil even during hard cornering. You turn left, the oil hits the right hand side of the sump and guess what.. Thats where the pick up swings. The same for hard braking and acceleration. And most importantly for us it’s 2″ lower than the stock item so it won’t protrude below the chassis line.

This is most likely the sump we will be using.

Option 2

The Dry Sump Sysetm

When you mention the word dry sump, what comes to mind? Probably high hp race car engines and lots of $$$$$ and you’re right! Take a look at Formula 1, Indy car, Nascar and any other professional race series and you’ll find most if not all are running a dry sump set up in the engines. They help contribute to huge horsepower gains and are a great way to keep your engine lubed at high revs due to the constant pressure supplied by the external pulley driven pump set up. The oil is also kept cooler using this setup as the oil is stored in an external ‘reservoir’. Applications for the GSXR such as the one above are available at around $2000. If you’re running Nitrous or a serious turbo setup for track work then this maybe for you, but to be honest i’ve seen 500Hp Hayabusa’s that just run a billet sump.

Stay tuned as I will post a full DIY sump replacement post for those that are interested in performing the same mods when ours arrive.

I hope that clears up the issues we face with the sump set ups so please let me know your thoughts!

Stay Sideways
Nick