Customer Reviews

Today's Technician: Medium/Heavy Duty Truck Diesel Engines Classroom Manual & Shop Manual

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

 

 

I'm one chapter away from finishing the classroom manual. I expected that the author would do an excellent job on the complicated topic of diesel engines, but fell short of my expectations. In all fairness, the author did an adequate job overall. He starts out with a bang in the second chapter explaining the different horsepower ratings such as HP, BHP, FHP and IHP. After that terrific start, the succeding chapters got a little less in-depth. I do like the fact that the subject matter is divided into two topics- theory and application. The classroom manual covers the theory and the shop manual covers the practical, "hands-on", side of being a diesel technician. Delmar does this with all of their Today's Technician series of books. If you are interested in a thorough approach with much better diagrams and pictures then "Diesel Technology" by Norman, Corinchock, and Scharff is the book to get.

I bought and read this book(it's actually two books, the shop manual is spiral bound, the class text is glue bound) in anticipation of buying my first truck. I'm not a tech so take my review with a grain of salt. The theory and general information seem adequate. There are a lot of detailed descriptions of repairs that are probably best left to OEM specific instructions. The end of the book was the most pertinent for me. It describes diagnostic tools and signs of trouble like smoke. I would have prefered more detail on the more/most common failures/problems encountered in used engines and how to detect them, though there was a fair amount of that.

The book lost a point for not doing a thourough job of quality control. There are a lot of typos and missing/misplaced words and such. Not such a big deal, but kind of breaks concentration while reading.

Essentially, this book did what I wanted it to. It described diesel engines in a way I could understand and gave me a basis for evaluating used engines, describing the tools and techniques involved, although I will have to study further to feel at all competent at such a task. So, it gets 4 stars and a recommendation as a good (and just about the only one I can find) basic, foundational book.

I'm going to write the same review for all three of the ASE Test Prep guides I purchased.

To be honest, I'm not very impressed. I'm used to the study guides for the FAA flight tests which are generally excellent from everyone. These had typos in the questions. One question even said to refer to a diagram which they forgot to print! I also found several mistakes in their subject matter in the study section.

I think they are an aid and do help with the preparation but they publisher could have done a much better job especially for the price.

I am very satisfied with the service, shipment, and price of the books! I'll definitely buy from again! Thanks again!!

Purchased for my on personal knowledge not a required buy for me. Found to be an easy read that was also easy to follow.