Tech: GZ Motorsports’ VP104 Super Pro 33 CFM Vacuum Pump

GZLEAD

With drag racing engine development ever evolving; more cubic inches, more nitrous, and more boost; a better vacuum pump is needed to keep the crankcase in check.  GZ Motorsports responded with a larger, high flowing, VP104 Super Pro 33 CFM Vacuum Pump. Greg Zucco, owner of GZ Motorsports, has been innovating engine accessory products for racers since 1985, focusing on racing vacuum pumps, crank mandrel drive systems, and racing alternator kits. His latest product, the VP104 Super Pro, takes his brand of vacuum control products to the highest levels of racing. NHRA Pro Mod racer Mike Janis relies on the VP104 Super Pro Vacuum Pump to control crankcase pressure on his supercharged alcohol-burning Camaro, and not much could be harder to control than a 3,000 horsepower engine and the demands it creates.

We’ve gotten our hands on one of these trick pumps from GZ, and we’ll be taking you not only for a guided tour through all of the features it brings to the table, but we’ll also walk you step-by-step through the installation and plumbing process on a small block Chevrolet race motor. So grab a seat and read on!

GZ Motorsports created a winner with the VP104 Super Pro 33CFM Vacuum Pump. Bigger vanes, a better housing, and more cfm; giving this pump the potential to match any performance racing engine. With an optional vacuum control regulator integrated right into the case for better packaging and this pump becomes even easier to install.

GZ Motorsports created a winner with the VP104 Super Pro 33 CFM Vacuum Pump. Bigger vanes, a better housing, and more CFM; giving this pump the potential to match any performance racing engine. With an optional vacuum control regulator integrated right into the case for better packaging and this pump becomes even easier to install.

The VP104 Design

Requiring the highest level of components to survive in the upper echelon of drag racing, the VP104 Super Pro 33 CFM Vacuum Pump is built upon GZ Motorsports’ new tighter tolerance die-cast aluminum housing. The larger housing features improved sealing through tighter tolerances to aid in total flow performance and peak vacuum potential. The patent pending vacuum pump design incorporates a crankshaft and hub assembly, carbon fiber vanes, and Rulon oil wipers. This crankshaft and hub configuration separates GZ Motorsports from their competitors by keeping the vanes from contacting and scraping the outer case, which reduces friction, lowers maintenance, and improves longevity.

Some racers say GZ pumps are just a factory smog pump, and Zucco explains why that’s almost true and actually a good thing. “Factory vacuum pumps in the 80’s were designed and built to run maintenance-free for over a 100,000 miles. I modeled my design after a factory-style pump, because they work. I use higher quality materials, maintain tighter tolerances, and the hand fit final assembly ensures that this is the best pump on the market.”

Break open a VP104 pump and you'll see why it’s at the top of its class. An industry-unique crankshaft system made up of a billet steel hub, carbon fiber vanes (with some proprietary chemicals that make them yellow and more durable), and Rulon oil wipers keep this pump sucking efficiently for more than 500 hours between maintenance intervals.

Another key feature of the GZ Motorsports’ vacuum pumps is the entry and exit chambers, which help smooth the incoming and outgoing air to promote efficiency and reduce suction pulsing. “When moving 33 CFM through a ½-inch inside diameter fitting, you need some room for air to collect so the whole vane is pumping air, not just the portioned centered over the inlet hole,” Zucco explains. “The air chamber design makes the pump more efficient because the entire pump is working for you.”

This design allows the pump to pull significant amounts of combustion gases out of the crankcase. With a 33 CFM at 5,000 rpm pump speed, the VP104 Super Pro Vacuum Pump means business, moving enough air to keep an optimum level of vacuum in the most demanding crankcases in drag racing today.

Put Down The Brake Cleaner – This Pump Can Take The Heat…and Oil

Racers with normal sliding vane vacuum pumps have to be skilled in the art of maintenance and cleaning. By inherent design of a sliding vane vacuum pump, oil and particle buildup keeps the vanes from moving freely and sealing properly; this reduces available suction, flow, and efficiency. These racers have to clean out the inside of the pump with a chemical agent, usually by spraying brake cleaner in the suction side while spinning the pump, with a frequency of every race weekend down or sometimes even after every run!

“I use higher quality materials, maintain tighter tolerances, and the hand fit final assembly assure this is the best pump on the market.”

GZ Motorsports’ carbon fiber vanes and Rulon oil wiper design resists oil and particle buildup. Testing shows no suction loss with GZ Motorsports vacuum pumps for 500 hours of operation with zero maintenance, easily surviving mountain motor street duty or a whole season on a 2,000-plus horsepower drag car. Before those 500 hours of use can be put on the GZ Motorsports VP104 Super Pro Vacuum Pump, each unit is factory tested for total CFM flow and suction force, guaranteeing each pump will work flawlessly right out of the box.

One Stop Shop

GZ Motorsports has everything you need to complete your vacuum pump installation, and it’s mostly made from billet. The first step is mounting the pump and finding room. Orienting the pump properly is made easy with two available billet brackets; universal left head assembly and universal right head assembly. Each bracket comes with an assortment of holes to fit Small and Big Block Chevrolets, Small Block, Big Block, and FE Fords, Mopar, Pontiac, and Oldsmobile (plus Mitsubishi if that’s your cup of tea).

Multiple piece crank mandrel assemblies rely on a very long bolt to hold everything together, and take the load of all the accessories being driven. GZMS machines their mandrel from a solid piece of 4” diameter 6061 aluminum for the ultimate in strength. Necking down to an industry standard 1” diameter shaft to accommodate varying types of pulleys with an 1/8” keyway.

Multiple-piece crank mandrel assemblies rely on a very long bolt to hold everything together, and take the load of all the accessories being driven. GZMS machines their mandrel from a solid piece of 4-inch diameter 6061 aluminum for the ultimate in strength. The unit necks down to an industry standard 1-inch diameter shaft to accommodate varying types of pulleys with an 1/8-inch keyway.

Driving the VP104 Super Pro vacuum pump is a breeze with a billet aluminum crank mandrel, offered for the same engine families listed above. GZ Motorsports’ crank mandrels allow the racer to drive not only a vacuum pump, but other accessories too; mechanical fuel pumps, alternators, and external oil pumps can be fit to the front of the engine. To finish off the mandrel, a full line of V-belt or cog belt polished billet aluminum pulleys are available to match your specific application.

The fully polished billet pulleys are really nice -- make it a one-piece fully machined billet cog pulley and now you have made something that performs just as good as it looks. GZ machined the cog teeth right into the face of the pulley, negating the need for front and back retaining plates to keep the belt on at high rpm.

Worried About An Engine Meltdown And Pressurizing The Crankcase?

Keep It Sealed

The best vacuum pump will not keep negative crank case pressure in your race engine, if said engine is sealed up like well-aged swiss cheese. Using quality gaskets, trimmed to fit, with copious amount of sealant is the way to go.

GZ Motorsports has created a new product that allows vacuum to be pulled on the engine, while providing the safety of high flow valve cover breathers. The current NHRA method to combat this problem is “burn down” tubes, which are unrestricted valve cover breathers (when the engine “burns down”, all that crankcase pressure needs a large, wide open path to escape).

This method doesn’t allow the use of a vacuum pump to control crank case pressure. These innovative high-flow check ball breathers will keep the vacuum from sucking in outside air under normal operating conditions. Lift a head or burn a hole in a piston and all those exhaust gasses now have a designated path out of the engine and into the puke tank. Watch for an NHRA Pro Mod or Top Alcohol-legal version to released soon.

Taking the worry away from an engine meltdown getting even worse by blowing off the valve covers and oiling down the tires, GZ has designed these check ball safety relief valve cover breathers. They exist to save your butt when you need them, and do not effect vacuum potential when all is well. The ball and spring assembly will start to relieve crankcase pressure at 1 psi. Anything over 1 psi and the engine isn't happy, so it’s best to give the vacuum pump a helping hand and route some of those gasses straight to the puke tank.

Installing The GZ Super Pro

A twin turbo alcohol injected small-block is not the normal place to find a vacuum pump, even though it’s the perfect application for a VP104 Super Pro vacuum pump. We’ll be putting this vacuum pump to the test on a methanol-fueled 412 cubic inch small block Chevrolet with a pair of twin S400SX 72mm Borg Warner Airwerks turbochargers. Follow along as we install GZ Motorsports’ complete vacuum control system.

Mounting the vacuum pump with the supplied bracket is an easy task, but take care to place in a spot that doesn't obstruct any plumbing, exhaust, belts, or other accessories.

The hardest part of a vacuum pump installation is figuring out the best place to put it. There’s a lot going on in the engine bay of most race cars, things to watch out for, such as the water pump and cooling hoses, fuel lines and regulators, the steering shaft, frame rails, alternators, and power adders like turbochargers. Once a spot has been picked, clamp the bracket and vacuum pump to the motor plate so the holes can be transferred using a scribe (Hint: put some tape on the bracket so the clamp doesn’t mar that nice billet surface).

Use an angled scribe to mark the future bolt holes that will need to be drilled in the motor plate for mounting. Try to spread out the holes around the bracket to give it better contact with the motor plate for a more secure mount. Once the outside of the bolt pattern is marked, center punch the holes where they need to be drilled. This particular bracket from GZ uses 3/8-inch bolts, so a 3/8 drill bit will be required to open up the motor plate. Through-drill the three holes scribed in the motor plate using a file or burr whip to clean the edges of the freshly drilled holes so there are no remaining burrs or raised edges. Finish by bolting on the vacuum pump mounting plate, using quality fasteners, washers, and locking nuts.

Chucking a belt at 8,000 rpm would be bad news, so getting the alignment right on a custom style vacuum pump install is critical.

Driving the pump is just as critical as mounting it, and GZ has made that a breeze with their universal mandrel kits. This mandrel is for a small block Chevrolet, matching the factory dimensions of the three-bolt harmonic balancer; a dab of Loctite on each fastener and bolt the mandrel on in under a minute. Getting the crank pulley to pump pulley alignment just right is a little more complicated.

Zucco recommends using a machinist square to position the crank pulley in perfect alignment with the pump pulley. A good secondary check to make sure everything is correct is to lay a machinist ruler across the face of the pump pulley and double check that both marks for the crank pulley are at the same position. Once the lower pulley position has been ascertained, take a measurement using a dial caliper and record the length. This length will need to be cut out of the supplied retaining sleeve stock to help keep the crank pulley in the proper position.

The GZ Motorsports mandrel and billet pulleys are captured to each other with an aluminum sleeve and front bolt. It 's cut to fit for proper belt alignment, locking the pulley and mandrel together tight.

Measure twice, cut once. The retaining sleeve was machined to a total length 1.960-inches, which is perfect belt alignment according to the machinist square and ruler. Don’t have a lathe? That’s okay, a band saw (or hack saw) and very careful grinding can produce satisfactory results. Now it can all be bolted together: inner retaining sleeve, crank pulley with key, outer retaining sleeve, and bolt-on retaining cap. Loosen up the pump mounting bolts and slide the belt on. With that, the mechanical part of the install is now complete.

High flow vacuum pumps require a well baffled catch can to separate the exhaust gasses from the oil and expel only the gasses through the breather. The GZ Motorsports catch can has a double baffle to keep the oil in the can and the exhaust gasses moving to atmosphere.

Now we arrive at the plumbing stage. We re-used the existing -12 black nylon lines and aluminum hose ends from the previous valve cover breather setup. It’s a straight path; valve cover to pump, and pump to catch can. Care was taken to minimize sharp bends in the hose and tight turns through fittings. Zucco explains, “The entire vacuum control system needs to be efficient, not just the pump; high flowing lines that don’t constrict under vacuum, big enough lines to move air to and from the pump, and a baffled catch tank that can breathe without spitting oil out the filter.”

The newly developed “burn down” safety valve cover breathers mount right through the valve cover or intake tray, getting the exhaust gasses from an engine meltdown safely into the puke tank, keeping the oil going to a safe place and not under the tires. This item will get plumbed into the catch tank later, when GZMS finishes their 2 port catch can.

The newly developed “burn down” safety valve cover breathers mount right through the valve cover or intake tray, getting the exhaust gasses from an engine meltdown safely into the puke tank, keeping the oil going to a safe place and not under the tires. This item will get plumbed into the catch tank later, when GZMS finishes their 2 port catch can.

The GZ Motorsports VP104 Super Pro 33 CFM vacuum pump, crank mandrel, billet pulleys, catch can , and safety breather took an hour to properly install.  Not a bad time investment for better oil control, a more stable ring package, and more horsepower.  A time saver was the belt being the right length for the chosen mounting location and the catch can was previously mounted with the pre-existing valve cover breather system.  It doesn’t get much easier, the kit comes with everything needed for installation (minus the tools).

We can’t wait to get this car on the race track and get this GZ Motorsports vacuum pump spinning and pulling some negative pressure against our 412-inch twin turbo methanol gulping small-block.  We expect to need the vacuum regulator to keep our crankcase at a steady 15 inHg.  With a full array of data logging sensors running into a Holley EFI Dominator Box, we’ll be able to keep tabs on the engine’s health and tune up.

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