Maintenance Schedule

[Gunner]

Originally Posted by bobcowan

Maintenance on most of these cars is really not that differant than any other car you won.

I haven't won any cars lately, but I'll assume you mean "own."

I'd have to qualify that statement by era. These cars have almost exactly the maintenance needs and schedule of any 1960s vehicle... which is vastly more demanding than most cars of the last twenty years.

We've had four new vehicles between us since 2000, and I've done less maintenance on all of them than in about any year of my older vehicles. There's almost no such thing as a tune-up, spark plugs last 100k, oil change intervals are in the 10-15k range, interior materials are far more durable, paint and finish need hardly anything besides washing. Brakes and wipers... that's about it.

I had to stop for a fuel filter for 707 this afternoon, since I have the rear wheels off, it's right there, and I don't think it's ever been changed in the three years/5500 miles of life. She commented that she thought a new car shouldn't need so much service... I just laughed.

[bobcowan]

Originally Posted by Gunner

I'd have to qualify that statement by era. These cars have almost exactly the maintenance needs and schedule of any 1960s vehicle... which is vastly more demanding than most cars of the last twenty years.

You're exactly right, and that's why I qualified it with, "the same as a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy with the same equipment."

If you use a good modern synthetic oil, why change it every 3K miles? If you use a new tire and wheel, why worry about the pressure so much? If you use a closed coolant recovery system, you won't loose any coolant.

Partly it depends on how you build it, and what parts and systems you use. And partly it depends on how you drive it. I'd bet most Cobra's would do perfectly well with changing the oil once a year.

[Mooch]

Originally Posted by bobcowan

You're exactly right, and that's why I qualified it with, "the same as a Ford, Dodge, or Chevy with the same equipment."

If you use a good modern synthetic oil, why change it every 3K miles? If you use a new tire and wheel, why worry about the pressure so much? If you use a closed coolant recovery system, you won't loose any coolant.

Partly it depends on how you build it, and what parts and systems you use. And partly it depends on how you drive it. I'd bet most Cobra's would do perfectly well with changing the oil once a year.

Like I said it the beginning, intervals will never be agreed upon.

I do agree that many Cobras would be happy with a once a year oil change, but would I? I will admit that I change the synthetic oil in my daily driver every 10k miles. It is a modern engine made for daily use at moderate driving.

Just the engine I'm putting into my Cobra will cost about half of my daily driver. It will be driven hard and will be stressed every time it is driven. So I'm going to do frequent changes. Will it make any difference to the engine? It's debatable. Even if I know it makes no difference, I'll still do it. The placebo effect to my conscience is worth it.

To make it easier I'm doing some things.

1: Top-side oil changes with a Mityvac. The remote filter is easily accessible. It takes me ~10 minutes to do an oil change. Every third change will be traditional through the pan.

2: Rare earth magnets, pulled from old hard drives, on the remote oil filter. poor man's version of: http://www.shopfiltermag.com/ This should catch the bulk of small metal in the oil for when I do the top side changes, and the drain plug on the third change should get the rest.