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For the last 35 years Moroso Performance Products has earned a reputation as one of the most respected suppliers of automotive equipment for racing and street performance applications. The company manufacturers over 3000 products, from oil pans and oiling system accessories, to ignition wire, ignition components, valve covers, fuel system equipment, air cleaners, hard core racing tools and numerous other performance parts. In addition to the Connecticut based manufacturing operation, the company also owns Moroso Wire Technologies, a state-of-the-art ignition wire manufacturing facility in Philadelphia, PA and Moroso Motorsports Park located in West Palm Beach, Florida. This is a multi-use facility including a 2.25 mile, ten turn road course and an NHRA sanctioned 1/4 mile drag strip.

Moroso's new “big vacuum pump” is twice the size of anything they've ever manufactured, designed primarily for blown alcohol and 800-inch Pro Stock applications.

Now this progressive company has introduced a new super-sized vacuum pump designed to improve the efficiency and performance of high-powered supercharged alcohol-burning and big-cube Pro Stock engines.

Moroso Sales Engineer Scott Hall described the basics of vacuum pump usage in racing engines and the projected function of the new piece of hardware.

“Most vacuum pumps employ a centrifugal vane set-up which draws air in on the negative side and pushes air back out on the positive side as the pump speeds up and the vanes seal against the pump housing,” Hall explained. “In drag racing applications, the belt-driven mechanical vacuum pump was originally used as a method of improving the efficiency and performance of typical Comp Eliminator and Pro Stock engines by creating a negative pressure in the crankcase area.

“Most racing engines are equipped with breathers in order to help reduce crankcase pressure which can cause oil leaks and adversely affect the way an engine accelerates. By further reducing this pressure with the help of a vacuum pump, a number of things occur. Free from crankcase pressure, theoretically a piston on the downward compression stroke has less resistance to impede its progress, thus allowing it to accelerate faster. Vacuum also aids in drawing oil from the rotating assembly quicker as well. Engine oil pressure tends to be reduced as a result of the vacuum inside the engine, and oil is drawn out from between the bearings and crank journal quicker than normal. As a result of this increased efficiency, we have redesigned a number of our racing oil pans as there are fewer scrappers and screens required when a good vacuum pump is used.

Massachusetts-based Pro Mod racer Steve Salvadore was the first to test the new Moroso pump, and after two nationals events he's very enthusiastic about the results and the future potential of the piece.

“With negative crankcase pressure present, the engine's oil pump sees less resistance, therefore the pressure that the gauge will show is lower, but in turn the volume that the oil pump puts out actually increases. Because of the reduced resistance, the oil pump can flow more oil while showing less pressure on the gauge. Since the increased flow serves to pull additional heat away from the bearings and journal, however, the reduced oil pressure is compensated for, and no engine damage occurs.

“In naturally-aspirated racing engines, there may be a pound or two of crankcase pressure present, but most are equipped with a pan evacuation system which works in conjunction with the exhaust header to create low pressure, thus drawing the crankcase pressure out. A good pan evac system can actually make up to four or five inches of vacuum versus traditional breathers. When vacuum pumps are employed in these engines, because there is no need for a large volume of flow, OE pumps such as those made by Ford, as well as a number of Moroso's smaller pumps, will do a good job.

“Engine builders who did a lot of work with supercharged, alcohol-burning Pro Modified engines, as well as 800-inch IHRA Pro Stock bullets, were the first to express an interest in a large vacuum pump suitable for their requirements. There has always been a need for increased vacuum in these large powerplants, as small percentages were gained as vacuum was increased to the 23 or 24-inch level. In addition, these large cubic-inch engines are invariably based on aluminum blocks with steel sleeves inserted in the cylinders, and the amount of power they make and the resulting expansion rate of the aluminum can cause leaks and oil blow-by to occur as the seal between the block and sleeve is compromised.”

When Moroso decided to build a pump large enough for the most demanding racing application, they looked first at the supercharged, alcohol-burning engines of the type found in the Pro Modified ranks. These pieces usually develop between one and three pounds of crankcase pressure in spite of using two large breathers, which is far from an optimum situation. Many builders who utilized the forged and billet blocks now on the market chalked the high pressures up to the fact that these blocks provided less expansion and better sealing, but Moroso engineers knew they could improves the situation dramatically by employing the right vacuum pump.

Starting with the data accumulated through years of working with naturally-aspirated and nitrous-injected engines, the folks at Moroso calculated just what they would need to do to produce effective results with the more powerful Pro Mod and Pro Stock “mountain motors.” Working up from existing designs, the new oversized pump soon went from drawing board to prototype. All they needed now was for someone to test them under racing conditions. Ultimately, they had no trouble at all in finding a couple of high-speed test beds, with the C5 Corvette of former IHRA Pro Modified champions Jim Oddy and Fred Hahn, as well as the 1957 Chevy of Steve Salvadore, enlisted to receive the new pump.

“One of the first obstacles both camps had to overcome was how and where to mount and plumb the oversized pump on engines where space was already at a premium,” said Hall. “They had to utilize the breather tubes specified by the class rules, as well as incorporate an in-line check valve to be used in case the engine burned a piston. In that case, if the pump couldn't keep up with the pressure, it would have to be bypassed back into the frame rails. Unlike a vacuum pump set up for a naturally-aspirated engine, which just has a line running into a valve cover, the new combination incorporates lines, check valve, exhaust and a lot more.”

The Pro Mod championship duo of Fred Hahn and Jim Oddy had their New York-based C5 Corvette running with the new Moroso vacuum pump at Indy, and preliminary results were good enough that they will do further testing during the remainder of the season.

Using slightly different methods, both teams succeeded in bolting what Moroso currently calls the “big pump” to their respective engines, however, and went racing. Salvadore headed first to Norwalk, Ohio for the IHRA's World Nationals and then to Epping, New Hampshire for another IHRA event, the North American Nationals, while Hahn and Oddy prepped their “Vette for a trip to the NHRA's U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis.

Since the Moroso team had never worked with engines that accelerated as quickly as the blown Pro Mod pieces, they were keenly interested in monitoring how fast the new pump would accelerate as well as decelerate on a gear change, and of course they were looking at the overall durability and reliability of the unit under “real world” conditions.

In that respect, preliminary results have been very good, according to Hall. “Steve Salvadore's car was the first one to take the new pump for a ride at Norwalk. At staging rpm, the pump was making from 14 to 16-inches of vacuum, which is quite a bit. Once Steve swapped feet, the vacuum dropped as he reached the top of first gear. Once he shifted into second gear, the vacuum stayed perfectly level, and actually climbed a bit during the run, where it made between 6 to 8-inches, which is double of what we were hoping to see. Salvadore and Oddy will both tell you that the cars are running improved mile-per-hour numbers with the new pump because with the motor accelerating quicker, the boost comes up quicker as well. Another benefit both teams saw immediately was the clean, uncontaminated quality of the oil after a run, indicating better overall sealing which prevents fuel from getting into the oil.

Oddy was cautiously enthusiastic about the potential of the new pump, saying “we got about nine inches of vacuum out of the pump the first time out, which wasn't as much as we were hoping for, but it's certainly well worth doing. It really dried the engine up a lot, and the condition of the oil was really amazing after the runs we made.

“At this point I can't say if we saw any performance gains, because we ran 6.22 with the pump and 6.22 without it, but I believe it has potential, and we're going to continue to work with the Moroso guys to help them fine-tune it. After all, we had to come up with a way to mount and plumb the pump ourselves, and we just took a calculated guess as to how fast to drive it, so there's a lot of room for improvement there yet. It still needs a few dyno sessions to come up with some more precise information, but that's going to happen real soon. So far it looks like something that's worth doing. I know at Indy after we ran well with the pump on the car, you could have walked down the Pro Mod pits and sold one to every team, so that tells you a lot.”

For his part, Salvadore is convinced that the pump will soon be a common sight on blown alcohol cars.

“We've run the pump on the car at the two last IHRA events, and we have seen positive results from it,” Salvadore reported. “It does appear to be giving us a better crankcase seal and reduced blow-by, which I have to say is an important factor in improving the efficiency of the supercharged engines we run in Pro Modified.

Steve Salvadore ran career-best numbers at Epping, New Hampshire, and he attributes at least some of the performance gain to the better engine sealing provided by the big Moroso pump.

“Since an efficient engine is a happy engine, it's going to make more power. The increased efficiency eliminates energy-wasting blow-by, and we knew we were achieving that degree of efficiency after our first run with the pump on the car. Our normal procedure is to drain the oil out of the engine after every run, and when we drained it that time it looked like it had just come out of the bottle. With an alcohol engine, you normally get milky-looking oil after a run because fuel gets in the oil and contaminates it, but the vacuum pump increases the engine seal and prevents the fuel from getting by. Not only is this better for the engine's performance, but it also serves as a safety feature by eliminating alcohol-contaminated oil.

“We have also seen improved performance out on the track. At the last race in New Hampshire, we ran a best-ever mile-per-hour of 228, which is better than we ever ran even before the blower overdrive was restricted to 25%. The elapsed time on that pass was 6.21, so overall we were very pleased with the performance, and we know it still has some more in it.

“I would definitely say that the pump the people at Moroso have built has great potential, and I honestly think that this is something you'll see on all supercharged alcohol engines in the very near future. The naturally-aspirated cars in Pro Mod all have them, so it's just a matter of time before all the blower cars will have them as well. The demand is going to be huge, I'm very sure.

Each team that received a prototype pump from Moroso had to devise a way to mount it in already cramped quarters. This is what Salvadore and his crew came up with, and it worked very well.

As far as the immediate future is concerned, Hall concluded by saying “right now we're working with different drive speeds and the overall longevity of the pump. After all, we only have 20 or so runs on two prototypes at this point. If everything pans out well, we have four other engine builders, including Jon Kaase and Sonny Leonard, set to evaluate the pump on other engines, including the 800-inch Pro Stock engines they build. Once that testing is successfully wrapped up, we plan to release the first production units by November. Right now, we haven't even got a product number assigned to the piece – we just call it the ‘big vacuum pump,' but I expect it will have its own designation real soon.

“We're very optimistic about the potential of this new pump in the applications it was built for, and judging by the waiting list we've already compiled of racers wanting one, we've created quite a buzz in the industry.”

A sure sign that the new pump will provide a number of benefits to those running blown alcohol combinations is the fact that both Salvadore and Oddy sent their pumps back to Moroso for examination only after receiving guarantees that they would have them back in time for the next race!