Anybody know of any good books explaining in detail how everything works on an engine, particularily modern car engines and if possible even the 2.5L Subaru engines. Also a book explining in detail how to tune and tweak engines for big performance increases would be nice too. I don't have an impreza now (poor college student http://www.i-club.com/ubb-files/smilies/smile.gif ), but when I graduate my plan is to buy a used 2.5RS from 2002 hopefully (That will be two years from now, so 2002 will be used by then) and completely tearing down the whole car and rebuilding everything, but I want to do lots of research and make sure I know exactly what I'm doing before I get involved in the project. So, any suggestions?

There are a ton of good books and most of them apply to domestic V8s. There are a few for imports but they tend to center around Hondas. Your best option is to get hands on experience. If there is a local Subaru dealership get a part time job or a position as an intern without pay or anything to get your hands on the cars. Books are great reference items but you learn far more from actually working on the car.

If you're an engineering student, you might find <u>Internal Combustion Engine Fundamentals</u> interesting. It's by John Heywood, an MIT professor. The book is really, really good, and many top engineering universities use it, like University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Purdue, Carnegie Mellon.

It isn't all dry equations though. At the end Heywood writes in more practical terms about turbos and superchargers and everything else related to engines.

Thanks for the info about the books. I might try that book you suggested Ottos. I can't afford to work for free though interning at a Subaru shop this summer because I have to pay for college. Actually I'm very good at figuring things out and also at building and making things (like my computer and home theater system), so if I had a good book that could give me more detailed info on engines then I could probably do fine taking the thing apart and modding it. I'll check into the book you suggested.

buy a helms manual or a chiltons manual. Helms is by far the best since that is what most mechanics use..it goes over ever bolt, every gasket, every amount of torque needed on each bolt and in pretty good detail. Chiltons is a little dubbed down.

Thanks I'll look for the Helms manual. Where can I get it? Is that the exact title of it?

I just read "Modern Engine Tuning" by A. Graham Bell. Very informative book going into pretty good detail about a lot of performance stuff. You won't find any info specific to Subaru in it, but the same principles apply to all internal combustion engines.
-Shawn