but an oil pump in an engine isn't a centrifugal pump. it works by 'trapping oil in cavities which decrease in size as the rotors turn and then is released at the outlet port at greater pressure.
a centrifugal pump has a rotor spinning in a cavity and centrifugal force pushes the (usually) water to the outside of the cavity where the outlet is. up to a point a centrifugal pump can be dead headed (when a radiator is blocked for example) and it would cavitate whereas an oil pump if you did that would most likely break it's driveshaft.
neil.
