Anthony posted:
If you store or park your car for the winter you may want to have a shut off valve or remove the inlet line to the pump to prevent oil seeping into the crankcase.
I known people to have a dry sump system store a vehicle for months and go to start it and when checking the oil level they add a few quarts/liters only to hydro the engine when firing or once the pump begins to scavenge they have excess oil in the tank.
I've discovered that my engine / dry sump system will allow some seepage as Anthony mentions above. I think that may be called wet sumping. Older British bikes were famous for it.
My last Roadster run before today was in Florida about a month ago. Oil level was perfect. I checked the dipstick on the motor today before startup and it was about a litre over. No big deal but some smoke on startup too. I checked the oil level in the remote sump when all was warmed up after a 20 km drive and all was correct. I then checked the dipstick in the engine and it was back to normal = full.
Radial aircraft engines are famous for this and Jim Kimball down in Florida came up with a electric shutoff valve that was switched in such a way that the engine's starter would not work if the oil valve was still shut off. If you hydro lock a radial aircraft engine various things can go very bad quickly...like bent connecting rods etc. My small 5 cylinder radial engine has two cylinders below the center of the crankshaft. After shutdown, on number four cylinder there is a little tin can hanging under the downward facing exhaust pipe to collect oil that might drip out of the exhaust valve and on number five cylinder there is a small valve you open to let any errant oil hanging around the low spot on the intake runner.