I recently joined this club and have several questions. I am the original owner of a '73 240Z. In 2001, I overhauled the car first by switching out the original carburetors for '71 carbs and removing the points for an electronic ignitionnte.

[CORAZ]

I recently joined this club and have several questions for the forum.  I am the original owner of a '73 240Z.  The car has 50,000 original miles and has been in my garage for most of its adult life.  In 2001, I overhauled the car by:

1. Switching out the original carburetors and replacing with  '71 carbs.

2. Removed the ignition points and replaced with an electronic ignition.   

3. Replaced the engine and transmission lubricants with synthetic.

4. Installed new Pirelli tires.

5. Professionally repainted with the original color, finishing with a clear coat.

My question for the forum is if the car is driven less than 50 miles annually, with only 3000 miles driven since the overhaul in 2001,  how often would you change the synthetic lubricants and tires?

Thank you.  

[SteveJ]

Oil change - Annual

Tires - If you store the car off the ground, you could go several years. If you store the car on the ground, you're probably flat-spotting them. That would push more frequent replacement.

I have some friends in my local club that have gone 15+years on a set of tires. I won't trust fate like that. The max for me is 10 years from the manufacture date on the tire and sooner if I detect dry-rot. Remember to pull the tire to inspect the backside of it.

[psdenno]

17 minutes ago, SteveJ said:

I have some friends in my local club that have gone 15+years on a set of tires. I won't trust fate like that. The max for me is 10 years from the manufacture date on the tire and sooner if I detect dry-rot. Remember to pull the tire to inspect the backside of it.

I recently changed the tires on my seldom driven Porsche.  They had been on the car since 1987.  Yes, 35 years on a set of Pirellis. Tread was like new.  One had severe dry rot.  The 10 year interval Steve noted sounds like a good idea unless dry rot is noted sooner.

[Jeff G 78]

Storage conditions have a lot to do with tire life.  They will continue to degrade no matter how they are stored, but proper storage will extend the usable life.  Seven years is the industry standard for service life, but that can be extended.  I used to always pull my good summer tires and store them in the basement covered.  They were still in great shape and usable 15 years later, though I wouldn't push the car hard.  If the car is stored on it's tires, they need to be overinflated to max sidewall pressure to minimize flat spotting.  Nitrogen inflation will also help, but I never bothered with that.  10 years is a good max life if they don't get used much and are stored in good environmental conditions.  

I bought a Saab 900 Turbo a few years ago that hadn't been moved in 17 years and was sitting in a fairly humid garage with the tires underinflated.  The Michelin tires were already quite a few years old when it was last driven and yet they still looked like new with zero cracking.  I immediately replaced them before I ever took it around the block once I got it running.

[Racer X]

2 hours ago, CORAZ said:

  how often would you change the synthetic lubricants 

For vehicles that don’t get enough miles annually to warrant an oil change, the crankcase oil should be changed once a year. Even though the oil doesn’t get polluted with combustion byproducts that escape past the piston rings, the crankcase gets humid, and the oil gets fouled with moisture, and whatever chemicals that are in the atmosphere. 

So once a year is cheap insurance for your engine.

Transmission and differential gear lube should last indefinitely, given that it isn’t exposed to the same pollutants as the engine oil.

It is also a good idea to keep track of the engine coolant, and do a clean and flush periodically. Testing it can help determine the required frequency of replacement.