Customer Reviews

How to Rebuild 4.6-/5.4-Liter Ford Engines (S-a Design, Workbench Series) (Cartech)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I was eagerly awaiting this book, having pre-ordered it some time before it was available.

It was worth the wait.

It had most of what I needed and more than I expected. I learned a great deal about the Ford Modular V8s, though not everything I wanted to learn. Among the high spots of this book is that it's as much a basic "performance" manual as it is a "rebuild" manual. There are lots of useful upgrade tidbits contained within, which is really a bonus above the more practical primary purpose of the book. Fortunately, the author didn't supplant any rebuild material for the performance stuff. The other useful element is that the engine is thoroughly explained and dissected to give a new owner the basic foundation for understanding this unusual engine. If you are an "old time" gearhead like me, used to the big iron V8s of yesteryear, the reorientation is useful.

The book is well organized and well laid out and fairly easy to navigate- which is fortunate, because it is not indexed. That's my segue to the more critical part of this review. Any book of this type should have an index. I understand the reasons why books are not indexed, which are primarily financial in nature, but every technical book like this should have an index and I knock off "points" for any that aren't. The other area in which I deducted points for this particular book is in how the author discusses lubricants. This is a topic on which I have a bit of knowledge and I think the author was barely able to make the target, let along hit close to the center. I knocked a coupla points off for that. Personally, I wanted to see more on the Variable Valve Timing of the later model engines, a topic Reid barely touched upon. Is that an oversight or merely him focusing on more relevant topics? I don't know the modular engine community well enough to say, so I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I come at this from the truck end and this book is more geared to the car and performance car side. Anyway, the book did an admirable job of answering my many basic questions and moving my level of knowledge well up the ladder from a foundational point. It's well worth the financial investment and the time it takes to digest.

this book is informative for anyone that has limited experience tearing down and rebuilding engines. It provides insight into tear down and rebuild.

Caution: this book is almost word for word, picture for picture identical to George Reid's "How to Rebuild the Small Block Ford-Color Edition (SA Design)". Purchase one or the other, but not both as I unfortunately did.

The book is in formative and has many nice points about building the ford engine. I am used to Chevys and therefore this is a new experaince. The book is well layed out with many pictures illustrating what is being read. This is especially the case when it comes to indexing the dual camshafts.
Being a visual person, I would like to have seen more pictures since this is a "how to rebuild ..." book. Step by step pictures are very nice when you are doing the build with the book on the table next to you.
Otherwise, I thought it was worth the money spent.

This book has very good and needed information as to the 4.6 and 5.4 engines. If you are rebuilding or changing engines from a 4.6 to a 5.4, this book shows the differances that you need to know. It was helpful when I took out the 4.6 in a 96 mustang and installed a 2004 5.4 engine. It's a tight fit and you can save $$ by using the 4.6 intake, wiring etc. Also has good pictures for compairson of engines and parts.

This had a lot of generic information. It had very little special information about the 4.6/5.4. It also had a lot of advertising that I didn't need. I was very dissatisfied with the book

I recently bought a new Mustang GT. It's my first Ford since a '91 Probe. I had a '69 Corvette (350/350) for 27 years, but just sold it after having completely rebuilt / renewed it. I wanted to move from Classic Muscle to Modern Muscle and wasn't interested in paying a premium (above sticker) for a Challenger or Camaro. The Mustang is GREAT. I've been a Chevrolet enthusiast for years, but now I want to learn more about Ford's 4.6L 3-valve V8. So, based on the title of this book and its publication year (2009) I thought there was a good chance that it would help me understand more about the 4.6 engine. The book has very good information about Ford's modular engines, and I learned a lot reading the book. But, for the 4.6 engine the book mostly covers 2-valve and 4-valve engines and those engines that are naturally aspirated (carbureted). This is a good book for learning about the Ford modular engines, but if you want to learn about the 4.6L 3-valve V8, you may need to supplement this book with information from another source ... I'm still searching for that other source.

it's a good book, fairly basic, but covers details that if you're not familiar with the motor are quite helpful in doing a rebuild.this and their first book give you a pretty good cover on the topic

A not too bad book on the greatest (potentially) Ford engine ever produced. Not much coverage on the 4-cam engines, nor anything too technical, I am hoping more books and information will be forthcoming. This engine is capable of astounding reliable performance with surprisingly little serious modifying. 1000 h.p. is not very difficult to obtain. Give us more!

This is a good book for 4.6 and 5.4 sohc engines. How ever the engine I was working on is a 4.6 dohc and this book does not cover the DOHC engine very well.

For the most part I really enjoyed this book. It is very good for someone who has not had the opportunity to tear into the new modular engines yet. Like many others I pre-ordered this book and it was worth the wait.