WARNING*** BEWARE OF NUMPTY QUESTION TO FOLLOW..........


Just pondering here about using a dry sump on a BEC. How come it's ok dry sump these if the clutch is normally submersed in oil but is not when a dry sump used?

The R1 clutch is not submersed in oil. It does flick oil off when running so it must be fed oil or pick it up from somewhere.

Yup, my ZZR has a spray bar mounted on the clutch cover plate, which keeps it moist, rather than wet

The spray bar is connected to the oil pump, and then runs up inside the main case, where it drops down onto the gears / selector forks.

HTH

Mike

My standard ST1100 has an oil spray into the clutch housing but has a seperate scavenge pump to drain it ASAP.

ie moist not wet

Now for a real numpty question, but how do wet clutches work?

I've spent a considerable amount of time in the past trying not get oil on car clutches.

Most bike clutches and gearboxes are fed with pumped oil through the shafts that are in them, not relying on splash from the oil surrounding them.
The wet clutches work due to the different nature of the materials on the driven plates, and the sheer amount of contact area on a multiplate clutch.
One thing to be careful of when running a bike engine is not to use a synthetic oil designed for a car engine, only oil for bike engines. Synthetic car engine oils contain an additive that may make your bike clutch slip.

The oil in a bike clutch is mostly for cooling iirc.

I've just fitted the Extreme Engines dry sump and it comes with a baffle to reduce the amount of oil that flows through from the crank case to the clutch housing. Apparently without it too much oil gets through and can pool in the clutch housing (presumably on left hand corners).

Clive.

Clive

Ive also fitted a Nova dry sump but I never fitted the baffle plates and advice from an " pro" I hope I am not going to have any problems..

Jason