The best Automotive Engineering books: Reddit reviews

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

The wheels comes staggered stock because they want to make the car as safe as possible.

From everything I've read and experienced, if we're talking just about handling, you want the tires to be staggered based on the weight distribution of the car.

For reference, my car has had bc coilovers and st sway bars.

My mr2 is 43f/57r weight and for years I had 205/225 for years and had to set the rear coilovers to 100% soft, and front almost 100% soft to get a good balance.

I went to 205/235 and I was able to set both the front and rear dampening to around the middle. Going around a steady state corner, all 4 wheels start to lose grip at the same time, so neutral handling. That changes when accelerating or braking in a turn,

But overall I've spent about 10 years tweaking the suspension to where it is very predictable and always does exactly what I want.

If you're looking into suspension tuning, I highly recommend a book called "high-performance handling for street or track". Also "toyota mr2 performance"

high performance handling for street or track

Toyota mr2 performance

I've heard this and the Greg Banish books are good for in depth reading. Apparently you can get amazon link kickbacks too.

Amazon has these:

General Motors Cutlass RWD, 1970-87 (Chilton Total Car Care Series Manuals) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0801986680/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_V19XBbCH76MM7

Bought one for mine, kinda generic but does have good information such as wiring diagrams and engine measurements.

OPG has the assembly manual for the body which is not only cool but very nice to have.

> I bought all the Delmar books and used a few other resources. https://www.amazon.com/ASE-Test-Preparation-Brakes-Delmar/dp/1111127077 > > READ THE QUESTIONS TWICE. (they get off on tricky wording) > > start with what you know first (suspension, brakes, HVAC, Electrical, whatever... this builds confidence and lets you learn how to take the tests) > > A1 and A3 were the hardest for me kuz they were machine shop and transmission shop specific and i've never done shit but yank 'em out and have em rebuilt... umm... > > learn how to take the tests. i've seen really talented technicians fail the tests because the don't know how to take tests well. (first chapter or 2 of every Delmar book is test taking tips for that reason)

Also I read this: Auotomotive fundamentals by Martin Stockel. 10th edition. You don't have to be an engineer to understand that book. If you enjoy that, you may want to be an engineer. https://www.amazon.com/Auto-Fundamentals-Martin-W-Stockel/dp/1590703251/ref=pd_sbs_14_2/138-6406587-2127365?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=1590703251&pd_rd_r=d1e00f96-01db-47c0-b567-28374c5ea922&pd_rd_w=Ih9mI&pd_rd_wg=tuNmR&pf_rd_p=ed1e2146-ecfe-435e-b3b5-d79fa072fd58&pf_rd_r=73XG1NBMSYYCK1B8YT42&psc=1&refRID=73XG1NBMSYYCK1B8YT42

And if you really want

Hey congrats on the new ranger! I started out with an ‘88 with the 2.9 and I did all the work myself, with some help from my dad.

So the first thing you’ll want to get for your truck is a Chilton’s manual.

Next up, because it’s low miles, which is awesome, btw, your best bet is to keep the same oil type that’s been in it, so 5W-30. Capacity is 5 Quarts. If you change your oil for Synthetic, be sure that you keep putting Synthetic Oil in every oil change. Synthetic Oil is also significantly more expensive than conventional oil, so personally, I’d keep putting conventional oil in.

The Motorcraft (Ford’s affiliated aftermarket brand) part number for your oil filter FL1A. Now that you have that number, you can use it to cross-reference to any other brand’s part number (O’reilly’s, Autozone, etc.). I personally used Wix brand filters in mine. They’re a tiny bit more expensive, but I’ve found the quality to be worth the cost difference.

As far as the rest of the fluids go, I would get a Chilton’s manual for your truck. They are the holy gospel of repair manuals, and are great not only for repair/service information, but also as a confidence booster. Here’s a link for one on Amazon, but you should be able to get one in any parts store.

https://www.amazon.com/Ford-Ranger-Bronco-1983-90-Chiltons/dp/0801989671

And of course, if you have any questions, feel free to PM me or just post on this subreddit again. Good luck!

I think I picked mine up used on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Mini-Cooper-Service-Manual-Convertible/dp/0837615119/ for roughly $75. There might be better out there in electronic form but I elected to go with a hard copy instead of an unknown PDF. It isn't a bad manual overall. I just think it gets a little hand-wavy in places where a diagram or picture would help. YouTube has been a good resource in those places.

If you get it up and running, you'll have learned a lot. Heck, you'll probably learn a lot anyway. Good luck.