You guys do realize that the recommended viscosity is 5-30 (preferred) or 5-40. These engines have very close bearing tolerances. Heavier viscosity can actually cause the bearings to wear faster, due to improper oil film thicknesses. The thicker oil does not flow properly between the bearing surfaces, leading to oil starvation and faster wear.

 

One thing is street use, on track oil temp is higher and engine is under stress constantly. Still won't use 5W30 even on a street car at least 5W40.

 

I've had two other race cars that spec was 30, The first (Mazda 626 auto) lasted 2.5 races before the motor blew and the other (Firebird manual) lasted 5 hours with spun bearings. Most racers do use a higher viscosity than what is recommended due to the increased abuse the motor takes. On our Firebird I bought 40, as I am nervous to jump to 50 for the reasons you stated Tijoe. I do not really know much about the X-Type yet motor, so I'm unsure about which to use. Really appreciate your feedback.

 

Read this article and see if it influences your choice of oil... I know that the AJ-V8s have modern small gap bearing clearances.
I haven't seen the published clearances for the X-type engine.

Bearing Clearances - Engine Builder Magazine

 

I am starting to look at tires for the car. The car currently has 16s which we will use for at least this season. Next year I will likely look into 17s. The best tire options come in 225/50/16 and from what I have read on the forum, these will work. BTW- our speedo doesn't work so that isn't a factor. Any reason this size would not work?

This is what I am looking at, I had them on our 626. Really can't beat them for the price.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....omCompare1=yes

 

Based on comments, links, and research here I decided to go with the 5w40 oil, 75w140 gear fluid and Red Line D4 ATF. All fluids are full synthetic. If something blows up I'll let you know and then you'll be able to follow swap posts, LOL.

The ATF fluid was tough to find one that works, the Red Line is the only one I saw in the states that specifically states our transmission. Let me know if you have an opinion on this fluid as I'll probably order it tomorrow. $100 for 8 quarts is a lot for a transmission change done at home.
Red Line Synthetic Oil - Automatic Transmission Fluids - D4 ATF

 

Where are you located. I would love to buy some interior parts

 

In South Jersey, kind of between Philadelphia and Wilmington. I'm willing to ship anything you may want if you're not local.

 

When will you guys race?

 

Race is May 14-15. The 13th is inspections & test and tune. We still have to put the roll cage in. Once that's done I'll feel much better. I'll try to post a link where you can follow the race when we get closer, but Race Monitor is usually the easiest way.

 

My fingers will be crossed.

 

I had an idea for you guys, but no idea if it is good or bad or useful.

Pick up an extra transfer case, and spend a few hours getting comfortable swapping it out and in. There is a bracket in there that is a real headache, but lots of folks have removed some welds and added extra bolts so the switch is not too hard.

I never had to take mine all the way out, but to change some bearings I still had to get past the bracket (which I just couldn't do the proper way) so I shortened some long bolts with a hacksaw (still plenty of safety margin past the nuts) and pried it off that way quite easily.

If I were racing an X-Type for many hours, knowing that I could swap in a TC if necessary would give me a lot of peace of mind.

With practice and power tools I would think it might be done in less than an hour, which is better than DNF, or whatever they call it.

Hopefully others will weigh in.

I will put a few bucks (just a few!) into an extra TC for you guys to show my support. Or buy some interior part, or something.

 

That is a really good idea. I also need to locate one at a local pick and pull for some spare parts. The first race with a car is a lot of fingers crossed, after that you get a better idea of potential issues and it becomes how may spare parts can you bring or access quickly. Fortunately if something breaks Saturday it is not a true 24 hour race, so we'll have Saturday night to figure out a solution. We will change the transfer case fluids with full synthetic, but since that seems to be the #1 issue, bringing a spare is smart.

The race has 3 classes A, B & C. A being fast cars likely to finish, B fast cars not likely to finish or slow cars likely to finish, and C is the worst of both. Good news is two weeks ago an X-Type won C class, so I'm feeling optimistic. We'll likely be placed in B, but really hoping our fairly low mileage but high rust car will run all weekend. We will take it easy this race though.

 

That's great.

I don't know if having the X-Type win was good or bad for you guys since now we know it can be done and the stakes are raised. You are already out of category C, for better or for worse.

I also don't know how you get sponsors or whatever but would be happy to PayPal a few dollars over towards a spare TC. Maybe you guys can get the board to link to a gofundme page or something.

 

I just saw you were from Hawaii, which is a good distance from NJ but we just had a driver drop out and are looking for another one. We're talking to some local businesses and have a garage help with tires and such. The initial build is expensive, after that it's just consumables, like transfer cases LOL. That X-Type races at Sonoma and has run at least 3-4 races now. I heard the first couple races ended not so great, but the last two were awesome. Not sure what upgrades they made, but so long as we get through the first race we'll have extra funds for upgrades. Only need to buy a roll cage and safety equipment once.

 

Sounds like 3lvis also races, so he may have more ideas.

Thinking about it, another thing that goes are shift solenoids, especially when they get hot. I seem to be changing mine out one by one and regret not doing them all at once.

Not hard to do in the X-Type.

Here is a nice diagram of which solenoids control what:

VWVortex.com - 09A Tiptronic Solenoid Location & Function

 

We really haven't gotten the car up to speed or done significant driving in it yet, but what we have done the motor and transmission seem great. I'm really most worried down the road when things go. Even then, we'll figure it out we always do. When we started racing 3 years ago I had never even changed brakes. Now I changed out two motors and most parts on a car. Those internal parts still scare me though.

 

Good luck!

Really looking forward to following this now!

 

I'm in Somerset county - and work in Princeton. We could perhaps meet up?

Can you PM me here pls?

 

Wor ked on the car a little tonight. We wanted to get a seat placement for our drivers ranging from 5-6 to 6-4 so we can place the main hoop on the cage. Started trimming the cage to fit, had a small fire, but it's coming along slowly. It may also be the first Jag/X-Type with hood pins.