The Sunnen book, is a text style book, Sunnen is one of the major manufactuers of automotive machining equipment. The book covers everything from how a 4 stroke engine works to various maching processes and how to use various Sunnen equipment. While most of you may never for example own a Sunnen cap grinder or rod honing machine this book will educate you on what machining operations are needed in a engine rebuild and teach you what to ask for when going to the machine shop. Over time on these forums I see alot of folks comment on items like rod resizing for example and not knowing what it is and how it is done, this book answers those type of questions. I tried to help teach a tech school course on engine rebuilding and I felt this was the goal of our class, to teach people how to dis-assemble an engine and inspect it, know what to ask for when they went to the machine shop and to know how to measure everything, check behind the machinist for proper clearences and assemble the engine with confidence.
What separates the one time backyard builder from the pro is understanding and knowing how to determine what sizes everything should be and being able to measure and see that they are in fact that, this book will get you closer to the pros.