"Thornycroft" engines

mogmog2

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This has been touched on in a thread or two, but I didn't find the info I'm after.

Someone has presumably bought the name rights and now producing Japanese-based units sold mainly (exclusively?) by Marine Enterprises. I would contact them, but their track record of answering emails doesn't inspire confidence. Japanese base units are fine, however, I can't find what the base units are. IIRC they use Bowman heat exchangers, which is encouraging I think, suggesting a bit of care at least. However it is just a name - Qualcast spring to mind: now a sub-brand of Argos or the like, definitely nothing like it's pedigree, just cheap plastic tat.

I can't find any company information on the web. No head office, nothing in Companies House, nothing to indicate a company to whom you'd want to shell out several grand to. Nothing to suggest that they'll still be here in a few years' time ( I know everything is precarious in life, but I could reasonably hope that Beta might still be around in 5 years'time).

Does anyone know anything about them?
Many thanks
 
I heard they were marinising Mitsubishi engines, as did previous Thornycroft company for some years. Thornycroft used to get base engines from UK importer Diamond Diesels who can also supply fully marinised engines if that's what you're after. https://www.diamonddiesels.co.uk/applications/

That's a start, thanks.
We'll be needing before too long, just looking at the options so we're ready to jump when we need to. They're a bit less than Beta but not a huge amount in the grand scheme of things.
 
Craftsman in Holland also marinise Mitsubishis. Their stuff looks lovely, and I was very tempted until I found that the base engine is substantially wider than the Kubota one, and wuldn't fit in my boat. So I went Nanni instead, which has turned out to be a mistake[1]. I should have bought a new 1GM10.

[1] Because it's more complicated, just as noisy, just as much vibration, pisses out coolant and has already blown a fuse meaning the electric stop wouldn't. I just don't trust it.
 
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