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Nanni diesel engines

dhill

Member III
I'm starting to see more dealerships for Nanni diesel engines popping up in the Northeast. They seem to be marinized Kubota tractor engines, at least for sailboat applications. Anyone know anything about these engines or have an opinion about them?

Thanks!
Dave
 

Kevin A Wright

Member III
I'd never heard of them so looked up on line. Lots of brands have used the Kubota blocks to build on (Universal, Beta, etc.) so that's a tried and true route and makes it easier if you ever need to get major engine parts. Looks in the picture like they did add a manual used oil pumpout feature like the Beta's although didn't mention it in the brochure. That's a nice function. However one design thing that stood out to me, they route the antifreeze line over the main belt. So if you have to change your alternator belt you would have to drain the coolant system. That's a danger sign to me of how they think about their engineering. I'm biased because I just bought a Beta, but I did because of how they laid the engine out for future maintenance to make it easy. Since the all use the same Kubota heart, its type and placement of oil and fuel filters, belts, annodes, etc. etc. that make the difference in the long run on the ease of use and maintenance.

Didn't check pricing so if considerably cheaper than a Beta it might change my mind.

Good Luck!

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
 

gabriel

Live free or die hard
 

Dave G.

1984 E30+ Ludington, MI
Found this price which seems crazy cheap. Looking at the pic I don't think you would have to remove the coolant hose to change the belt. Looks like the belt would slide behind the hose to me. Pretty interesting at that price point though. Definitely worth a close look if you need to replace an engine.

 

Alan Gomes

Sustaining Partner
Found this price which seems crazy cheap. Looking at the pic I don't think you would have to remove the coolant hose to change the belt. Looks like the belt would slide behind the hose to me. Pretty interesting at that price point though. Definitely worth a close look if you need to replace an engine.

Their prices on the Betas don't look half bad, either.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
If the engine is a Kubota....can't go wrong as far as the basic engine !
Agree, generally. But.... our original Universal M25XP was a marinized Kubota block. While it was certainly 'OK', the first time I looked closely at a Betamarine engine I could see a number of parts that were much better designed and fabricated.
Before shopping on the basis of price, it would be better to closely inspect the Nanni version.
Having a Betmarine local long time dealer with his boat in my YC was also a big plus. He had, on hand, the engine mockup bed for my engine and gladly loaned to me for the process of fitment. So service is a really big deal, IMHO.
 

csoule13

Member III
Discovery is an Ericson 30+ that was repowered with a Nanni in spring 2015. We've had no issues with the engine. Working on it has been simple, all access points are straight forward. The self-bleeding feature is awfully nice after fuel filter changes. Would recommend without hesitation. We had a local mechanic do the install, so can't comment on level of effort. The Beta people certainly seem to have this stuff down regarding how their products drop into a wide variety of boats.
 

Dave G.

1984 E30+ Ludington, MI
Discovery is an Ericson 30+ that was repowered with a Nanni in spring 2015. We've had no issues with the engine. Working on it has been simple, all access points are straight forward. The self-bleeding feature is awfully nice after fuel filter changes. Would recommend without hesitation. We had a local mechanic do the install, so can't comment on level of effort. The Beta people certainly seem to have this stuff down regarding how their products drop into a wide variety of boats.
Nice, what HP engine and what was the final cost without the install labor? On a side note what year is your 30+ ?
 

Kevin A Wright

Member III
Looking closer you are right about the belt change. Should be able to slip it out.
The prices on the Inboard Engine sales website are ridiculously low. I looked at them when I was shopping for my Beta and emailed several times. No response. I think that is either a scam, or a site someone put up a long time ago then went out of business and never updated it.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
 

wynkoop

Member III
Wish they had dimensions on the web site. Of course I just finished a repower with the 1GM10 I converted to fresh water cooling, but for that price and for the weight if it would fit in an E-27 I think it would be a great choice. For now I will have to stick with my 1GM10 for a while.
 

Dave G.

1984 E30+ Ludington, MI
Looking closer you are right about the belt change. Should be able to slip it out.
The prices on the Inboard Engine sales website are ridiculously low. I looked at them when I was shopping for my Beta and emailed several times. No response. I think that is either a scam, or a site someone put up a long time ago then went out of business and never updated it.

Kevin Wright
E35 Hydro Therapy
You know what they say "if it seems to good to be true"....... If they didn't respond at all then obviously there's something wrong.
 

Loren Beach

O34 - Portland, OR
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
I clicked on the referenced web site, and got a warning on our browser that the site is "not secure". There was also a brief flash of a page of programing alphabet gibberish just before it loaded the main page. This does not give me confidence.
 

Dave G.

1984 E30+ Ludington, MI
I just went to their dinghy section and selected "buy now" on one of the dinghy's and nothing happened. Guessing it's a defunct site. Copywrite date at bottom of page is 2019.
 

mjsouleman

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Dave,

Discovery was repowered with a Nanni 3.75HE, 21 hp. This is an extra push up from the original 16 hp. I have a great spare parts catalog for maintenance also.

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