Anyone come across this engine type?

[JerryHawkins]

LG has the Thornycroft 345 (6-cyl, 5.6l and ~100hp). Ours is a similar age to yours and we had a perforated liner the other year. Decided to rebuild; new set of liners, big end bearing shells and piston rings (from a tractor spares place). All replaced with the engine in place (just jacked it up after disconnecting the shaft)! Good for another 30 years

 

[Rivers & creeks]

LG has the Thornycroft 345 (6-cyl, 5.6l and ~100hp). Ours is a similar age to yours and we had a perforated liner the other year. Decided to rebuild; new set of liners, big end bearing shells and piston rings (from a tractor spares place). All replaced with the engine in place (just jacked it up after disconnecting the shaft)! Good for another 30 years

I read about it either here or your excellent CW owners forum. I have immense respect for your skills and methodical, careful approach to the problem but I don't have any of those attributes! Sadly I have to use my skills to earn money to pay the engineers. You have a great engine which like you say will last another 30 years.

 

[cryan]

Mermaid JCB is an excellent choice. I may be a bit biased as a Mermaid dealer but it really is a top engine. JCB used to rely on Perkins engines but when Caterpillar bought Perkins JCB did not want their machinery reliant on a competitor's product and so set about designing their own engine from scratch. Designed and built in the UK for the most part ( There are units built in India for the Asian market) they are designed for hard abuse. They have also brought out a 6 cylinder version but Mermaid haven't marinised that as yet. Smaller JCB plant are now using Kohler KDi engines which are built in Italy by Kohler/Lombardini but apparently there is a lot of JCB input and the Kohler units look exactly like mini JCB units. Mermaid offer these in 42 and 49 hp versions.
If you need anything for the JCB just drop me a PM and I'll do my best to sort it out for you.

 

[Rivers & creeks]

Thanks for that and for the dealer connect. It seems like the JCB Mermaid is a genuine British success, we moan about how Britain doesn't make anything and how even Beta's "British" engines are based on an overseas base engine. It's going to be a tough job getting it to fit though!