Captain Obvious

Yeah. that's the kind of picture I wasn't allowed to post. I'm glad you can laugh at the situation and I'm also glad it was just a couple stiches. So how long did the Dr. say until you are allowed to give other driver's the finger again?

What exactly do you mean by that?

Thanks guys, I'm not really concerned with the ethanol as I can't get away from it where I live. I haven't been able to buy no-ethanol fuel for a number of years now. Gas prices in my area are maybe $2.50 per gallon right now, so it seems a little cheaper on the US side. Of course, I have no idea (yet) what the prices will be in the Buffalo/Niagara NY are which is where I'll probably cross over. As for $$, I'm thinking that I'm going to use my credit card for most things and let them hash out the exchange rate, but I think it would be a good idea to have some Canadian pocket $$ for things like Tim Horton's, etc. I don't want to get the dirty looks like SteveJ got. I get enough of that already for lots of other reasons. I'm thinking that if I get a chance, I'll stop at a bank for the conversion. So Namerow, You're planning to be at this event?

So any idea what was the overall change in mass? The reason I ask... I put a lightweight flywheel in my POS Civic (because that's what all the cool kids do), but I made sure to use the stock style pressure plate and clutch disk. With my Civic, the stock clutch and pressure plate together weigh almost as much as the stock flywheel, so going to a lightweight flywheel wasn't that dramatic of a change. I didn't need a tricky to drive in traffic quick spooling stab at the throttle nightmare. I just wanted something where the engine would decelerate at the rate the transmission wanted it. Prior to making that change, when I up-shifted gears in the Civic, by the time I let the clutch out, the engine RPMs were still way higher than where they should have been for the new gear. I think the flywheel was designed with too much mass for the system and by going to a lighter flywheel and slightly reducing the entire mass of the system, I think I better matched the RPM drop between gears. And I get the same feeling from my Z. Not as bad as the Civic, but a little bit. Or maybe I just shift too fast and work my synchros harder than I need to?

Whatever it takes! Sorry that you slipped. Just take care of yourself and keep it clean and dry. You'll be better quickly. And don't do that again!!

And also for any of you seasoned travelers... If I need gas, would it be better to fill up on the American side, or the Canadian side? And how about money exchange? If I want some Canadian money, should I get that on the US side, the Canadian side, or not bother at all?

Thanks for the tips about the emergency vehicles. Some states here have that law, but I don't think anyone enforces it. So what if you're boxed in and can't move to the left? Do they let you slide for that, or do you have to come to a complete stop and wait until you get a break in the other lane traffic and move over?

Site, Thanks for the info. So when you put his 10 lb flywheel in, did you put in a light pressure plate as well, or did you go stock weight there?

I was cutting carrots tonight after you started this thread and my wife wouldn't let me take a pic of a bunch of carrot slices on a cutting board with half a hot dog... Took the camera from me.

Ummmmm.... Really?

siteunseen, You're running a lightweight flywheel in one of your cars, right? What's the detail with that? What brand, etc?

Jims, Wow you've still got a long way to go. Hope it's smooth sailing! And Granny, Thanks for that weather forecast! Looks good so far!

Umm... Why? What happens if you don't? (I just want to hear you say it..... )

Yes, Having a bunch of Jims together is crazy fun. If you're the only one this time, maybe you can claim multiple personalities to cover the field? I'll do my best to cover the gaps. Rule 1 - No Pooftas, eh? So JimK, when are you getting there?

Haha! OK, here's a translation: "He likes good beer."

Support your local brewery I see: Ol' Factory Pils - 5% ABV Traditional in concept with a Two Roads twist…dry hops. We use a combination of classic German as well as American hop and malt varieties in our Pils. We renovated a 100 year-old factory building and designed this Pils to have “extra” aroma…so, pardon the pun! Crisp…refreshing…refined. 2015 GIBF silver medal- Continental Pilsner

Sorry that it's too far for a bunch of you guys, and jfa, I'm so sorry to hear that you were planning to attend, but have been sidelined by problems. zKars, you misunderstood the Jim... S30Driver (Jim) was saying that he and Zup (Jim) would probably be at the ZAttack in Nashville, not this upcoming Zcon. So, now that jfa had to bow out, none of the three (S30Driver, Zup, or jfa) are going to be in Toronto. But you'll have me!!

I'm on final approach for this event. In theory, I'm registered and have hotel reservations. My plan is to spend Wednesday night in Niagara Falls, CA and then finish the drive to Toronto on Thursday morning. Here's my rough interpretation of the schedule of events for the days: Tuesday - Opening reception at hotel and chili party dinner evening Wednesday - Judged show at hotel and dinner cruise evening Thursday - Track day at motorsport course and distillery district evening Friday - Autocross and road rally - nothing planned for evening Saturday - Peoples choice car show at Bruce's Mill and awards banquet evening Obviously, I'm going to miss the first two days, but I'm planning to do the distillery district event and go to the people's choice show on Saturday (as a spectator, not a contestant). And I'm hoping to make the banquet at the end. Who's the social director this time? I can foresee another emergency meeting of the ClassicZ Club at the hotel bar!

Haha! Consistency! Good luck with the radio. I have no doubt that you'll get it working. And make money, almost at the same time!

I know almost nothing about this whole process and I find it neat that you guys are able to do this kind of work. Is the chromate coating an electroplate process like the zinc, or is it just a paint like coating that "dries"? In other words, when you're applying the chromate, do you run electrical current through the parts, or do you just dip them into a solution and then pull them out?

Well it's definitely in the right hands. I'll bet you're the only guy willing to go that deep into a project like that. Accounting, huh? There was another thread a little while ago where a bunch of diodes (maybe the Zeners?) had turned to fuzz and had actually pretty much completely disintegrated. It sounds like they may have a longevity issue. Maybe internally shorting is the first step, or maybe the fuzz is conductive. Silver oxide or something from the tarnished old school silver coated leads? Is the Zener you found shorted a spherical ceramic looking body style or a cylindrical glass body? The fuzzy disintegrated ones were the spherical ceramic looking ones. I know what you're saying about getting itchy to drive the car. I'm the same way, although (not living where you are) I get the winter months to take the Z off the road. Not sure that's a benefit or a drawback? Wonder if your neighbors missed seeing you cruising the neighborhood these past four nights.

Yes, sorry. The DEA mounts that I bought have the threaded back plate. Wrongly threaded, but threaded. I should have bought Beck Arnley and put my own nuts on the back. I think that would have eased the alignment problems I had as well. Having to deal with additional hardware bits would have been a small inconvenience compared to getting the DEA mounts aligned enough to get the bolts started.

Haha! Me too! I know where I'm going to send my old electronics for repair!! So what do you think would short a Zener like that? It's not like it was passing a lot of current.

I'm not sure if there's any misunderstanding about the nuts or not, but just in case... The 240 OEM "nutless" mounts required you to put a washer and nut on the back of the mount. (As shown the pic above). Then later they added the nuts welded to the back of the mounts meaning you no longer need to manually put the nuts on the back of the mount. (Again, as shown in the pic above). So about the new current aftermarket mounts being nutless or not... The aftermarket mounts don't have actual nuts welded to the back of the mount, but the thick backing plate of the mount itself is threaded instead. So even though the new aftermarket mounts are "nutless", they do have the nut feature incorporated into the mount and you don't need to put additional nuts on the back.

I just installed a pair of DEA part number A2401 from Rock Auto and I'm not impressed. I had every single one of the problems mentioned above and then some. Here's my product review: The threaded stud out the back was longer than stock, and way longer than necessary. Not that it really causes a problem after installation other than leaving a bunch of extra exposed threads out the back of the nut to get rusty and make it harder to get apart again in the future if ever necessary. But what it does do, however, is make it so that you have to jack up the engine just that little bit more before you can slip the mount into place. I cut off the excess with a hacksaw after this pic, but here's the DEA and the OEM mounts to compare: Next, the DEA mounts have extra rubber molded onto the top that interferes with the location of the U-shaped bracket. A little hard to tell from this angle, but you can see the corners of the rubber don't let the U bracket sit all the way down flush like it should: I trimmed off a little of the rubber with a razor knife, and although not perfect, it fits a lot better than when I first tried. Note the angled edges of the rubber along the bottom: And (no surprise), I also had issues with the locating pin and had to modify it to get the mount into place. I filed it as Siteunseen described above: And then after getting the mount into place, As zKars described above, I discovered that the metric bolts that hold the engine bracket to the mount didn't thread into the new mounts. The original mounts use a M8x1.25 bolt. but the DEA mounts have a 5/16-18 thread. Not the end of the world... I had to go out and buy a new set of bolts to use, but it would have been nice to know that before I smeared the first couple threads trying to get the original hardware to work. Lastly, even after getting the new English threaded bolts to use with the mounts, getting the bolts started was a royal PITA because the holes didn't line up well. I had to loosen up everything including the bracket that bolts to the block and still use a pry bar to wedge the parts around just to get the first couple threads started. In the end, they're in, but it was a wholly unsatisfying proposition. I know "you get what you pay for", but if I ever do this again, I won't buy that brand. Might have been easier if I didn't have the trans mount in place and could get more movement of the engine in the bay to get things to line up, but doing it one side at a time with the trans mount connected was a bietch. Not impressed.