Building 4.6/5.4l Ford Horsepower on the Dyno

Building a supercharged (a non-Ford) engine, and I was looking for answers to some questions I had. This book had the answers to these questions, and you just can't argue with dyno sheets. So I can't comment on the "Ford"-side of this book, but otherwise I recommend this book to everyone building a supercharged engine, and also as a "generic" engine building guide (as I do believe, that most of this stuff applies to non-Ford engines just as well).Before this book, I bought Kindle-version of Greg Gordon's supercharging book (even though I'm not interested in Alfa's either). Mr. Gordon had opposite views on compression ratio (on supercharged engines) than Mr. Holdener. Mr Holdener's views are backed up with back-to-back dyno sheets, while these (comparison sheets) are missing from Mr. Gordon's book. Also, Mr. Gordon's book had a tad too much stuff on Alfa's and the ancient L-jetronic, that I don't really care about (but on the other hand it had a lot more info on water injection and superchargers in general).If you are building a supercharged engine (especially a Ford V8), and you're only buying one book, buy this one. If you have money to buy several books, definitely buy Mr. Gordon's book as well -it's always good to see more than one approach to the same subject. Unfortunately Mr. Gordon's books latest version is only sold as Kindle version, and WARNING about that: the Kindle app for PC S*CKS! Don't buy any Kindle books for PC, if they have pictures or charts (like Mr. Gordon's book does): you CAN'T zoom pictures on PC Kindle. This is not of course Mr. Gordon's fault, but Mr. Kindle's.

This was a great book in so many ways, the caveat being it's geared towards muscle cars and not trucks. The 3-V 5.4L engines used in trucks are are barely mentioned and there isn't a single test of them in the book. Unfortunately, that was my focus of research. I learned a great deal about the Ford modular engines in general and even stuff that would apply to the 5.4L truck engine... but, overall, I found the book more of a "dessert" than a "main course." Had I been a car guy, the reverse would have been true. Viewed in context, there is a great deal of worthwhile information in Holdener's book... especially if you need information on the various supercharger and turbocharger kits out there. The book is laid out well and the material is presented in an easy-to-digest format.

Very good book!!! This book will save you thousands of dollars in purchases that didn't need to be made because their HP contributions were inconsequential.The author gives laboratory quality before and after dyno tests of virtually everything the magazines encourage you to buy because it provides "X Horsepower increase over ____". The difference is the dyno doesn't have any marketing hype attached to the numbers and when you see the numbers there is a great many supposedly "must have" products that in the end are really don't waste your money products.Can't say enough good things about this one. For less than $20 you will save probably thousands of dollars and make hundreds of additional horsepower. This one is a must have!

The charts and documentation are very good, but it could stand to be updated with information on newer heads and intakes that have come onto the market in the last few years.

Great book, everything you could possibly need to know about modular Ford engines from engine guru Richard Holdener.

If you are a 3v owner, don't waist your money. Mostly 2v and 4v information

very informative book... has a little of everything for anyone building a 4.6 or 5.4.. wish i would have found it sooner.. i also wish they would do a more up to date version , being published in 2006 and a lot has changed over the last 7 years but all the information is accurate..

This book sheds light on what works and doesn't work for adding hp to your 4.6/5.4 modular. It was interesting to see how supercharged and turbocharged engines compare on the dyno when fed equal boost.

The book has some good general information but it's lacking in-depth information on the builds and parts used during testing. The graphs are good but they don't help you build any of the engines that they describe in the book which is too bad.

I learned a ton from this one.