Good Book Guide : The Mendings of Engines 

My first car was a 1968 VW Beetle - my 'go to' book was/is 'How to keep your Volkswagen Alive - a Guide for the Compleat Idiot'. It's an American book but is written to be both accessible, informative and entertaining; a must-have for any air-cooled vehicle owner.

I just ordered both of those books. Thanks for the review.

I've been learning about engines, how they work & how to fix then through youtube, 10 years ago, I knew naff all about them, now I'm happy to take my mower's engine to bits knowing I can put it back together again... :)

Greeting from Australia. Automotive mechanics volumes one and two by Ed may and William crouse and newnes all colour reference car repair and maintenance are great.

So enthusiastic it’s catchy. I love this series of vids. You are a star!

Great vid. Fault diagnosis is often so much harder than fixing the fault itself. Fixing a fault is often easy; it's finding what the fault actually is that can be hard.

The Reluctant Motor Mechanic took me back close to 40 years! My gran bought me that book when I was a teenager wanting to get into working on cars. The black pages with white diagrams brought back memories! Nice review Max!

One of the best purchases I made was the CD ROM for Land Rover, because it was a workshop manual written for technicians I found it much easier to understand in comparison to the Haynes type manual, and the line drawings were much easier to make sense of compared to the blurred black and white photographs. Lastly you can just print off the job you need and not need to worry about the paper getting wet.

And now on Radio 4, A Book At Bedtime with Max Ironthumper.

Well, what do you know, it turns out that I actually find book reviews interesting and useful. I am feeling rather enlightened and sophisticated right now, having seen all four :)

A few hours ago I looked on Amazon for a copy of The Reluctant Motor Mechanic and there were about 10 used copies from various sellers. I was going to add it to my wishlist, but when I looked back at the page, only a couple of hours later, all but 3 copies remained! So I made sure to buy one 😄

The best thing I was ever taught as a baby ship's engineer was to start with the basics. Applicable to all systems equally. E.g. every internal combustion engine needs air, fuel, ignition (spark or compression), compression, lubrication, and a bit of a shove to get going. All faults are something to do with the set of em in some way or another. Modern electrickery just makes it a bit more complicated, but if the basics are right then it's more likely than not going to be a duff sensor.

You are 100% correct with regards to the diesel engine. Perkins still supply the same core engine which derives from a 1950's tractor engine, to be marinised. Nearly all the tweaking (R and D) since then has been focused on tighter and tighter emissions. They are now on Tier 6

I must be a bit older because I can remember cleaning and regaping sparkplugs, filing and regapping points, adjusting drum brakes. We used to do all our own maintenance and no small amount of repair my dad was of the school that if you had the book you could fix it. The only time our vehicles went to a professional shop was when we just didn't have the right tools or couldn't build them I recently took mom's Explorer in and found out you can't regap the plugs unless you have a special tool, of course points have gone the way of the Dodo bird, and every wheel now has disc brakes

I have the reluctant motor mechanic, great book, helping me to keep my knackered Fourtrak running. Max, will you do (or have you already done) us a video about your time as a traveller and the sound system stuff you did? Pleeaase. 😃

I’ve got the reluctant motor mechanics. Great book. Helped me keep my old MGB going for years.

Got Nigel Calder book Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual i keep it on my boat very well written

Thank you! Max!

I have ordered the book about marines diesels thanks for the recommendation, although an old bloke in my boat yard said as the Gardner 6LW in my boat is only 50 years old it probably wont break down for another 20 or 30 years!!

Great and interesting series .

Max, I found a mint used copy of John Seymours book "self Sufficiency" on Amazon. What an absolute Gem of a book. Many thanks for enlightening. I'll buy you a beer.

Brilliant! Thank you very much - as informative as ever. Greatly appreciated.

"It's not starting because it's sulking" Lol

Never been one for fixing engines myself. Like you I wouldn't know were to start on a modern one. Everything today needs a computer diagnosis before any repairs can be done. Thanks for video look forward to the next installment 👍👍

👍 Thank you - super informative (as always)

Beer, Man more! Cheers

Thanks, just picked up a cheap copy of The Reluctant Motor Mechanic, very interesting.

Both can be had on the bay at the moment. Just picked up both for almost free. Consider pint bought

There are X9 paperback & X13 hardback"The reluctant motor mechanic" on Amazon UK for 1p each, plus the P&P.

Agree, with a modern engine if one of the computers says no you are stuffed.

Calder's book is brilliant, you might also want to seek out a copy of his "Boatowner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual" which is even more widely lauded, even for non-boat owners its treatment of electrical and charging systems for instance has proved invaluable in understanding what to most mechanics is still a "black art". Snap up any second-hand copy for your bookshelf and reference, you'll find it an awesome read/reference.

If you do buy a modern vehicle or get asked to repair a friend's an ELM327 from eBay for a couple of pounds will send all the diagnostic info you need to your phone by Bluetooth, occasionally modern technology is easier to repair than old stuff.

I bought an old book on ‘Steam theory and practice!’ I may build myself a steam engine! I think most of the cars I have owned, are registered with ‘English Heritage’ as ancient monuments 😂

What do you do to relax and unwind

Thought you'd have some Land Rover/Zil/Tractor specific material.

like maxs videos a lot can relate to what hes doing and why and thought i was the only person still reading ref books check out #ecogypsy# on you tube or #ecogypsy.guru# for more of the same ( with not as much welding ) cheers

its not working because its sulking? I can't wait to use that line.

👍👍👍👍👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿...

Howdy mate I have accessibility to Zil parts you have the same to land rover can 't we help each other out, 78 years young and still going strong. Cheers from Sweden.