Continental Motors Company was a major American engine manufacturer from 1905 into the 1960s, based in Michigan. At its peak it supplied engines to nearly one hundred automobile marques and helped power an estimated three million cars, while also producing power plants for trucks, tractors, pumps, generators and industrial machinery of many kinds.

The company is remembered for dependable, straightforward engine designs sold under the Continental name, and its aircraft division, formed in 1929, grew into one of the best-known makers of piston aircraft engines in the world. Continental engines therefore remain common in vintage cars, older trucks and tractors, stationary equipment and light aircraft. Continental also built the Red Seal engines widely used in forklifts, road machinery and agricultural equipment.

Workshop manuals for Continental cover complete engine overhaul and rebuild, cylinder and valve service, fuel and lubrication systems, ignition and electrical equipment, carburetion, torque specifications, diagnostics and maintenance schedules for the specific engine model being serviced. Older automotive and industrial Continental engines are often covered by service notes that apply across the many machines that used the same basic block.

Restorers of classic American cars and trucks, owners of Continental-powered industrial and agricultural machinery, and mechanics working on vintage aircraft engines will all benefit from factory service documentation that records correct clearances, settings and repair procedures. Correct factory data is particularly valuable for identifying interchangeable parts and setting valve and ignition clearances on engines that are now decades old.