Hey Guys, I put a vacuum pump on my 450CI C4. Vacuum pumps originated in Pro Stock ( that I know of), and have trickled down to Sportsman racers. They eliminate crankcase pressure and help control crank windage. And you end up creating vacuum on the bottom of the pistons rather than having crankcase pressure, and a better ring seal. A big stroke/high rpm engines benefit the most. And having a power adder with the rings end gaps opened up, the vacuum pump would also help those engine combo's. This is something that definately isn't for everybody. A stock or mild daily driver probably wouldn't benefit alot with a vacuum pump. But 20-30hp claims are pretty common in big cube, high rpm engines. I would think you would want to be over 500hp to consider a vacuum pump And if used in conjunction with low tension rings(which I never use) and a dry sump, there have been power gain claims of 50+ hp. On our cars, it's real tight adding a pulley with the rack right in front of the crank pulley. But I made it work. The other thing you have to be careful not to pull over about 12" of vacuum on a street/strip car with a wet sump, the wrist pins can be starved for oil eliminating the oil vapors that help lube them. And the vacuum pump needs to be oiled periodically if it doesn't get enough oil vapors from the engine. My 450 is pulling about 8"s of vacuum, about right where I want to be. You can also adjust the amount of vacuum it creates. I will find out in the next few days how everything is working when I take my car to the track.

 

thats a nice looking setup

 

Nice Jim

Wondering If I may be needing one of those or not.

whose pump is that?

 

It's an Aerospace pump. And you might be a canidate for one.

 

nice job..

 

cool hey what drive system did u use??? ill be adding a remote mechanical water pump if the electric one cant keep up.. i noticed we have very little room because of the sterring rack and frame crossmember thingy.. did u find one that fit or cut one down???

 

Those crankcase evacuation vacuum pumps work so well Jim,
I am told when your engine is fully warmed up & engine oil is hot,
You can remove the oil pan drain plug with the engine running & not a single drop of oil will drip out as long as the engine stays running.

 

not going to try it i learned saturday if you dump a gallon of expencive synthetic oil in your motor without putting the drain plug in it just runs out all over the floor

 

I learned something new today. Thanks for sharing the info and the pics. Post an update on how she does at the track.

 

That is called having a bad day at home in the Garage !

Those crankcase evacuation pumps are supposed to be that effective at promoting optimal piston ring seal on high power race engines with low tension rings & gas ported pistons.

I have heard of HP gains at the flywheel as high as 80 to 100 HP on 600 +ci BBC engines.
NHRA & IHRA prostock mountain motors.

Never know for sure unless you put your engine on a Superflow water brake dyno or an Eddy current brake dyno.

Otherwise lower ET times & MPH +'s will help tell gains if any.

 

Whoa now way!!! That stinkin awesome, i so would want to try that lol

Looks awesome Jim, you succeeded again at adding another item to my wish list

 

Dude, you've built a radical mechanical work of art

 

You could have just asked on the forum. I would have been glad to tell you that and save all the clean up. Been there, done that, got the refrigerator magnet and the t-shirt.

 

I am running a very similiar setup on my 434. They work nice, but I did not see any gains to speak of....

 

Looks nice Jim. I'll bring my car over next week and you can set me up with one of those.

 

Try priming a new motor with 6 quarts in the sump and no oil filter. After a minute of wondering why oil wasn't reaching the rocker arms I figured out why. The rug under my car was done.

 

Hey Willie, bring your car over, we'll do it. It would probably take half the time if I had to do it again!

Hey Bill, that pulley would be great, if I could find one. I am sure it could be custom made. But it's done now.

I am going to the track tonight if it doesn't rain on us. I ran on Wednesday, and ran 10.38@135 with a half empty nos bottle and the DA between 7000-7500ft. It started at 137mph and lost 1 mph every run. The bottle sat for a year, and was somehow 5lbs low. I should have weighed it before I went. So I now have a full bottle and our DA is 6000ft. I will make it and see what happens, if the weather holds out.

 

Jim, you've got to try out our track. 1000' da on Wednesday. Willie

 

Wow thats awesome! Where i live we're only 800 feet above sealevel.

I have two questions Jim or Willie,

1) How do you calculate DA? i can't seem to find any info online
2) Can you take a car that has been made for a higher altitude and run it at a way lower altitude without any probs?

 

My PerformAire weatherstation tells me what the DA is. Other guys at the track have an Iphone app that tells has the DA and also calculates their next et just like a weatherstation.