Customer Reviews

How to Build Max Performance 4.6 Liter Ford Engines

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a solid and comprehensive - albeit short (120 pages) - discussion on hot rodding the 4.6 litre ford, used in late model mustangs (including cobra and gt models), through 2003. the book was published in 2003 so the newer cobra engines with supercharging are covered.

There are 50 pages allocated to engine block, crankshaft, rods, pistons, heads, and intake manifold. Additional chapters follow for fuel injection, camshafts, ignition, oil, cooling, and superchargers. The author includes an individual summary for a half dozen or so competition and street "packages", examples of successful hot rods and what was done. And finally there's a chapter on building a 405 HP - no supercharger - cobra engine.

This is not a Haynes type of book, with lots of drawings showing how to take something apart and put it back together, this is primarily discussion, with lots of pictures, on what works and why, tweaks you should know about based on the author's experience, and what doesn't work or work quite as well. Of great benefit is the discussion of individual vendor components with associated pros and cons. This helps ensure the right amount of money is spent on the right stuff.

The author clearly enjoys performance engines and making performance engines work better, and he is a pro - see the website at http://www.seanhylandmotorsport.com/. He also writes well, there are numerous 'stories' from experience which are reassuring: he's been there, done that. He covers both street setups, strip and road racing. I would say there's fairly even coverage, street vs track, and much is a matter of degree, such as boost from the supercharger.

hence i recommend this book for anyone thinking about tuning their cobra, or getting an earlier model gt or cobra and having some fun hot rodding it. there's a lot that can be done, and this book shows clearly how to get from 240 hp to 600 or more, for street or strip.

It's good to finally see a book on the Ford modular engines. Hyland does the reader a great service by tirelessly going over blocks, cranks, intakes, cylinder heads, injectors, and ignition systems. He does a wonderful job on the cylinder heads, carefully showing how many cc's the chambers have with each style and letting you know what your likely compression ration will be with various cylinder head and piston combinations. One other area where this book really shines is the excellent photos that accompany the text.

I do have two minor quibbles. I disagree with his statement about hypereutectic pistons. For the average mild performance application, hypereutectics will be fine. If you have NOS, or a turbo, then by all means get the forged units. It would also be nice to include a overview of how to set the cams, chains, and sprockets for those who are installing a stock style camshaft without doing cam events. After all, not everyone is going to degree their camshaft, even though they should, and having a guide might prevent a few bent valves.

All in all, it's a solid book with a lot of information that isn't available elsewhere. If you don't have a book on these engines, pick this one up. You'll be glad that you did.

It's a pretty good book for the money but really not a "how to rebuild" shop manual. No real fits and clearances and only discusses the DOHC engines here and there. Not expensive and an interesting read but wouldn't attempt a rebuild of a 4.6 (especially a DOHC) using only this book.

The book is very informative but it was printed in 2007 and does not cover later model mustangs.Other than that, I am satisfied with it.

This was an OK book. I wish the performance section on the 10 various builds covered a 2 valve motor, with just a mild performance package, instead of all the ones for 4 valve motors, or 1000hp plus...
I just want a nice street motor, putting out some decent power (300-325hp) without too many mods. But this book did give you some decent stock rebuilding info.

Obviously, Sean Hyland has done a bunch of mod motors and R&D over the years. The review of different heads and intakes is nice, and seems spot on. How to modify intakes seemed a little vauge, but not bad. There's a few combos in the back of the book that probably would help some guys get an idea of what to build. There's a good source of info about superchargers!

There's some engine build-up stuff in there, and lots of pictures, but I thought he could have been a bit more specific about actually building the engine step by step. I liked the parts where he told about past failures, and what he learned from them. I also liked his description and instructions for head porting. He doesn't explain how to do it as much as he does what to do. With a little existing knowledge about porting, you'll be able to gain from this.

Overall, I thought the book was really decent and worth buying.

This book provides a wealth of information, including specific manufacturers and applicable technical data, which is otherwise somewhat difficult to locate, partiularly in one book. the information is very current and applies to a wide range of vehicle applications for this particular engine. Overall, an extremely valuable resource

The information in the book is awesome and a lot of mustang performance ideas are given. The only problem is that it is a little out-dated. Overall, a good read and a very useful resource.

4.6 liter v8 mustangs of that time did not have a "mustang motor" in fact it has a lincoln motor that motor went into the mark 8 in 93 and was built for the mark 8 as well. dont get me wrong i love a mustang but its one bad lincoln at heart

This is a great book if you are building a muscle car. It's less useful if you have a 5.4L, 3-valve truck engine and are looking for tips in that context. If you are shopping for modular Ford engine books, you may have read my review on Richard Holdener's "Building 4.5/5.4.L Ford Horsepower on the Dyno," book. My lament with this book is the same; a dearth of specifics on the 3-V 5.4L truck powerplant. This book, however, does have a modecum of specific info on the 5.4L 3-V and lots more practical nuts-n-bolts info. Because of the general architectural similarities between all the modular engines, the nuts-n-bolts approach covers a lot of ground generally. Of the two books, this one provides a more "hearty fare" that could be useful to a truck owner... if he understand the difference in context between the basic needs of a torquey truck engine vs a high-revving sporty engine. This book is geared towards the power side of the equation and that's exactly what the author intended. No foul! I came away a lot more knowledgeable regarding the Ford Modular engines. A few specifics on building a 5.4L torquer would have earned this book a rarely-given-by-me five stars. I like the layout and composition. It's only lack is a comprehensive index... something sadly lacking in many books these days.