Pre-oiler question

[scottj]

Pre-oilers were originally developed for aviation use on radial engines during WWII. The highest wear point is at the cam and lifters and because of the radial engine design a pre-oiler is able to flood those components and start-up wear is reduced. Pistons, rod bearings, and crank bearings do not experience start-up wear without a pre-oiler and therefore do not benefit from one. As far as evidence, the millitary collected scientific data and published the reports... but, I'm not going trying to research them.

Today, the aviation industry doesn't have scientific evidence for pre-oilers on modern engine designs. Although, by borrowing from the millitary reports on the radial design, the case is made that on engine designs where the cam is below the crank, wear would be reduced. What I find entertaining is, if you read aviation websites, you will find that those guys sound a lot like you guys.

Personally, I don't worry about start up and for a track application I use a drysump... which my Chevy came with from the factory.