Does anyone here have any experience of Nanni-engined B25's?

We currently have a fairly old 1600 Ford diesel in our boat and although it's reliable enough, I'm looking for something a little quieter.

I think Nickred's is a 2 cyl. and possibly a Nanni too!

Ramage has soundproofed his Sea Panther though, and for far less!

He'll tell you where to get the stuff from, and it works well!  

Excellent. I'll wait for a while until Nickred gets in and tells me that it's brilliant.

Re: the soundproofing... yes, we're tried that.  The problem for the Ford 1600 diesel is that the top of the engine comes very close to the underside of the centre floor panel.  There's only room for less than 1/2" of insulation at that point.  The rest of the panel is covered with 2" thick, foil-faced, sound-absorbing foam.  The helm and navigator's floor panels are also covered with a not-quite-so generous layer of foam (about 1" thick, I think) and the rear floor panels are liberally covered with dollops of spray-on foam to stop them acting as sounding boards.

It all seemed to make very little difference.

I guess we also need to find and seal any holes through into other compartments (under the seat lockers and through along the bilges at the least) before we might start seeing any improvement.

As well as the soundproofing we have underlay and carpet on top of the floorboards. It has made life a bit more bearable!

As you know, diesel Birchwoods are pretty uncommon. My boat "Carli" started life with a Sea Tiger petrol. Subsequently one of her former owners had her fitted with the Sea Panther diesel. (She is a shaft drive boat).

Nickcred had his Nanni diesel fitted after the Sea Tiger died following a mis-understanding with the sea-cock that shuts off the cooling water. His boat, "Tristan" is an outdrive boat. I think the cost was over £5000.....

I understand finding a different engine for a shaft driven B25 is very difficult because the gearbox is not capable of handling more power, and no-one makes a suitable alternative gearbox.  

Buy a used Sea Tiger.

I fancy some soundproofing just as an improvement, but she's as sweet as a nut, and pretty quiet too!

0.6-0.8 gallon/ hour it seems  

Fuck me!

Ebay:  190227776035

A MINT Sea Tiger with BW gearbox.  

Now seriously, look at the price of Diesel, and the extra punch the Petrol engine offers, and this little babe could be a very cheap option if you:

1/ Buy this for, say £1000.

2/ Remove gearbox and fit engine to your boat.

3/ Flog your engine after giving it a good clean and paint, say £600

4/ Flog the gearbox for, say £400

God, don't you just love me!  

Good idea about the extra soundproofing on top of the flooring.  I have a roll of good quality underlay in the loft.  I may bring that out...

That said, there's a lot of sound must go through the tunnel into the rear hatches and up under the seats.  Maybe some sort of flappy thing that covers up the relevant holes?  Hmmm.

As for fitting a Sea Tiger... I think I'll pass on that one.  I like the idea of diesel because of its robustness and, well, simplicity.

<story mode=on> We had a similar sea cock incident in my friend's 42' yacht.  After about an hour's motoring down river and out to sea to try and catch the wind, his wife came into the cockpit and said, "Y'know, it's lovely and warm in the heads. In fact... the toilet paper's quite hot?"

Just about then, I pointed over the side at the blue smoke puffing out of the side.  "That's odd.  Do you have a side-mounted exhaust?"

"Oh, cr*p!!"

We let it cool for an hour or so, opened the sea cock, re-filled the engine side of the system and it was fine.
<story mode=off>

I'm in two minds about the alleged 'robustness' myth...

The petrol is so old-tech, that even you or I could replace the carb or ignition, but neither could do a thing to a DPA pump on a Diesel.

The remainder of the engine is actually much the same, but the petrol is easier and cheaper to maintain. My original Sea Tiger is as sweet as a new one at thirty years old!

I read many horror stories about Diesels on the YBW forum  

That said, I've just come back from looking at a Nanni-engined B25...  

And the engine was really, really quiet.  

In fact, it was silent.

That was because it was still winterised and we never even got to start it.  There was apparently no mechanic on-site to de-winterise it and it would take too long anyway, so...

So, it was a good job the rest of the boat wasn't up to much or we might have had to go back again just to listen to the engine.  As it was, it was a no-no from the first glance.  

--Last edited by flashheart on 2008-06-18 16:12:22 --

Hi

Yep we re-engined with a Nanni 4.150 i think it has HE after the 4.150 after idiot here left the cooling lever closed and blew the poor old watermota to bits.

Must say we are really pleased with it.  Kris Cruisres the high people at Datchet recommended it as they have them in all their hire boats due to their reliability etc.  So we went wih their recommendation anf they did a great job installing it.

Costs were as follows

Engine £4371
Deluxe Dash £335
Machining £129
5m supreme cabling £39
Engine beds, wood etc £80
Exhaust hose, gaitor £32
stwitches and bits ££22
Fuel & fittings £57

Parts total £5113


Take a deep breath and call your bank manager lol

Then the removal of old engine, fit and glass in new engine beds, install new engoine, empty and clean petrol tank, fit new fuel pipes, make and fit new wooden dash and install nanni dash and wiring loom and refit original guages and new swtiches, remove steering arm, adjust and refit, fit new gator, new throttle cable, remove and refit and morse control

We also fitted new wipers at that stage and a few other bits and pieces

Labor 37 hours £1443.00

Total £6556

We have no real soundproofing apart from what the previous owner had stuck to the floor of the engine hatch lids which is literally loft insulation.  I was worried we should have got the engine bay sound proofed until they fired here up and she was really quite.  I think with a bit of sound proofing you would never hear it but we did not need to do it.  No problem at all, very pleased with the engine.  I will try and post some pics in the gallery

Regards

Nick

apologies for my spelling lol in the post above.

Thanks, Nick, for posting those figures. They give us a firm basis on which to work.  

<gulp!>

Oh... and when was this done? (The pictures in PBucket have been resized and their PhotoDescrïption no longer shows a DateTaken.)

Hi

It was two years ago, August 2006  

Cheers

SIX GRAND?      

That stopcock gets checked now, right?  

lol tell me - it hurt at the time but glad we did re-engine now.  We use the boat considerably more in terms of hours cruising than the previous owener did so things were wearing out and my good lady was getting nervous that it would break down with the old engine and kit lol

And yes I am religeous about my checks now  :-)

I must admit on wondering when the old girl is going to break down!

I carry tools, and in fairness only a major catastrophe is going to prevent me from getting home to Bray, and we carry spare points, condenser etc, and even then the whole lot (Servicable parts) are replaced each year, so either engine failure (Highly unlikely without a few weeks notice, especially at 15-1800rpm and very little stress) or whatever would be an issue.

The engine is absolutely perfect judging by the total lack of any smoke, oil consumption, leaks or noises, but these things won't last forever!

Hell, it's only a Cortina engine after all!

I'll replace the plugs, points, oil, filter, hoses, impellor, condenser and change the gearbox oil when she's recommisioned after the Winter lay up, and keep my fingers crossed I suppose...

Lets get through 2008 first    

Arggh!

Sorry Brianlj just tried to post a message and ended up editing yours thinking I was quoting what you said. Must be half asleep!!

Anyway here's why i ended up doing what I did:




Was the Boat you looked at a shaft driven boat with a Nanni diesel?

Intrigued to know as last year after my incident with the petrol crossflow I thought about changing it for a brand new diesel unit.
The company that most interested me was "BETA Marine".  They have a good range of engines and had a chat with them last year at the Southampton Boat show. All engines come complete with gearboxes, but as yet I haven't had them out to quote me and tell me 100% as to whether the replacement is possible. Should expect five grand too.

Here's one of the range:

http://www.betamarine.co.uk/newsite/downloads/datasheets/seagoing-070508/Beta%2025%20S_ds.pdf  

Quote :

Flashheart wrote : Arggh!

Very piratical, I'm sure!

Quote :

Was the Boat you looked at a shaft driven boat with a Nanni diesel?

Yes, it was a late model B25 which had possibly been left a year or so, then had the interior done up and had its engine replaced with a Nanni.  Unfortunately, the engine was still winterised (in mid-June!??), so we never got to hear it.

Quote :

The company that most interested me was "BETA Marine".

I think I read somewhere that the engines are the same except Nannis are blue and BETAs are red.  Oh, and the engine mountings are different.  (Hmmm... Where did I read that?)

Quote :

Should expect five grand too.

Yes.  <sigh>  It's a lot of money just to get a quieter engine.  If our engine was on its last legs, I'd fit a new replacement in a shot. I wouldn't go down the route of getting an older model again, because (a) you never really know what you're getting if you fit an older one and (b) modern engines are much quieter and more fuel efficient.

Okay... so I'm looking at http://www.betamarine.co.uk/newsite/downloads/datasheets/seagoing-070508/Beta%2025%20S_ds.pdf  and comparing it to piccies I took of the Nanni we went to see and, yes, they are similar, but some things are in different places. In fact, there is a lot that's different.  

Same price, though.

I would lift out the original, and take it to be reconditioned. It should last another twenty years or so, for around a grand all in...

Nice old technology, you see  

When I get a quote i'll post it on here. If i'm loaded enough to go through with it i'll post the ordeal here too, including details of the hospital food menu after I get the bill