Dry-sump: What do you do with the internal oil pump ?

As a part of my swap / build I'm going dry sump to allow the desired engine height / clearance. The engine is a Nissan VQ37.

What do people generally do with the internal oil pump ? Are there options with various pro's and cons ? I'm sure it will make sense when I get the front cover off but I'd like to get my ducks in a row and mentally prepare for whats required ahead of then.

It depends on the dry sump system. Normally the internal pump is removed the location of the pump outlets are plumbed (perhaps blocked, or perhaps the new dry-sump pan has provisions for plumbing) to to the outlet from the new pump. Most drysump systems use external pumps, but there are a few that use internal pumps, there are some that keep the OEM pump as the pressure pump, and just add an external scavenge pump.

So, unless you are engineering your own drysump system, you should follow the instructions of your chosen drysump vendor.

Thanks for the reply David ... I'm putting together my own system around an Ed Pink 4 stage (1 pressure 3 scavenge) pump. Am designing the pan myself which will have a port through it to link the external pressure stage with the OEM location internally which previously was fed by the internal pump via the cast oil pan (now removed).

So in summary I will have no need for the internal oil pump at all ...

As David said, it depends on how the OEM pump is fitted and driven. Some may be easily removed, some may be required to drive other components, some may need to be replace with a spacer. It would seem you have one potential issue already sorted as some can be difficult to get the oil supply plumbed into a suitably sized oil gallery, as it sounds like you're feeding the pressure stage into what would be the pickup of the OEM pump?

I'm not too familiar with the engine, but it appears to have the pump driven directly from the crankshaft, being mounted over the crank end - if so, you should be able to remove the inner and outer pump gears and replace the inner with a spacer of the same length. You may need to check the seal design, but it looks like that won't be an issue.

Stock pump is in the timing case, behind the crank timing gear bolted to the block. Easy to delete, only requiring a sleeve for the crank snout (or a torrington bearing mounting brace if a super high power drag racing auto application)

From memory its an oring port into the block. Easiest way would be to blank that off, and supply oil to engine via oil filter port. Your system will have a different filter setup, and stock goes oil pickup > oil pump> oil filter > oil passages.

Thanks again for the input all !! Sounds like it will be pretty straight forward.

Nathan: Sounds like you have been inside a VG37 previously ... would the new sleeve need the 'drive flats' on the ID or can simply be floating on the crank ?

Yes there is an o-ring port into the block, usually mates to the cast 'upper' oil pan which I am removing, this OEM pan includes the filter plumbing so the new pan design will have an ORB port which sits at this location for an external fitting to the new external pump via filter relocation kit. O-ring interface remains from block to new pan.

On the dry sump pumps in general ... is it possible to run them 'upside down' ? ie: Changing from right side mount to left with the same mounting hardware ?

I've busted into the engine now and have removed the OEM pump ... looks like you can simply leave it out from what I can see (along with the two dowels) ? Its simply fastened in place by 3 bolts and floats on the nose of the crank. The high pressure outlet is on the bottom of the pump where it would have previously fed the filter through the upper oil pan which I am removing and replacing with the dry sump pan.

Is it really this simple !? Pictures attached ...