DRY-SUMP PUMP
Stock Car Products (SCP) has a long history with Big Red. In 1988, Big Red first rolled out of Bill Osborne’s shop with a Weaver Brothers dry sumpoil pump moving lifeblood through the engine. Tom Hamilton, the original owner of SCP, retired in 1989. He sold the SCP oil pump business to his son Steve, and the rest of the business to Emanuel Zervakis Enterprises in Virginia. Steve changed the name to Stock Car Products Dry Sump Pumps. Big Red’s engine builder, Larry, has been a long-time customer of Steve’s, so it made sense to switch to the SCP dry-sump oil pump during the post-museum restoration in 2004.
The dry-sump oil system in Big Red is huge. The dry-sump pump is tasked to circulate all 20 quarts of oil throughout the system, from the oil cooler in Big Red’s nose to the dry-sump tank in the trunk. Mark installs the scavage lines on the pump before installing it on The Beast 555 to make the task easier. Tim and Cliff discuss plumbing the huge remote K&N HP-5001 oil filter mounted with the Joes Racing Products remote mount.
The Land Speed/Top Speed setup also uses a SCP dry-sump pump, but the bracket is different due to the motor plate and supercharger drive system. The additional bracket was designed to use the original SCP pump bracket for adjustment. The long pulley bolt is used to prime the oil pump while warming up the car in the pits. Before firing the engine, the oil in the dry-sump tank is warmed, the pump belt is removed, and a large, hand-operated drill is attached to the bolt on the front of the oil pump to prime and circulate warm oil throughout the system. Cliff is the fitting king on the crew. He shows up from G&J Aircraft with any fitting the crew needs, and he helps plumb the car. It helps that he’s a long-time Big Red crew member. The new dry-sump lines are plumbed up to the front on the cage structure where they easily can be disconnected and reconnected when swapping from Land Speed/Top Speed to Road Race mode. To make things easy for that process, the team completely plumbed both engines with their own Stock Car Products dry sump pumps, along with everything else. This cuts down on the swap process time.
