Mancini 1943 (oz13715)

About this Plan

Mancini 1943. Model aero diesel engine.

CAD drawings by Ron Chernich. Article by Bert Striegler.

Quote: "The Mysterious 1943 Mancici Diesel, by Bert Striegler.

The first time I ever heard of the 1943 Mancini was when a dear friend, Ray V Strinati, wrote me that he had found one and had it in his hands! Ray, an Englishman of Italian descent, is an avid engine collector and is very knowledgeable of the very early engines. I hardly had the heart to ask, "What is a Mancini?". But I did and Ray told me that it is possibly the very first Italian diesel to be made in a small commercial quantity. He sent mechanical sketches that were made by a collector friend in the UK and even offered to send the engine over for my examination. I suggested to Ray that it was too risky to send what might be the only existent Mancini all the way to the USA in the mail. If an engine like that is lost, it is lost forever!

Later, Ron Chernich came up with a set of German drawings of the engine. The two sets of drawings were in general agreement and the German drawings were attributed to 'E Mancini, 1943'. The dates were also in agreement. At first glance, the 1943 Mancini looks like a restyled Dyno, but on closer examination there are a number of details that differ substantially. The Mancini does not use the classic Dyno porting, and instead, uses a single side exhaust port with a single bypass port across the cylinder like many modern engines. The mounting lugs are set high above the centerline of the crankcase, unlike the Dyno. Another unusual feature was the domed piston with a matching contra piston configuration.

Like many early Italian diesels, the 1943 Mancini had a very long stroke. The bore was 14mm, but the stroke was a whopping 24mm, giving a displacement of 3.69cc. The crankcase is a two-part casting of similar construction to the Dyno. No tank was fitted. The engine construction was conventional, simple and very neat. I would guess that the engine ran well, based on it's timing and general arrangement.

Mr Mancini remained very active in the engine building business. According to the listing in the superb Annual No. 1 produced by SAM Italia-Chapter 62 and edited by Cesare de Robertis, Mancini went on to produce the beautiful Alfa 1 in 1945, followed by the Alfa 2 in 1946. These are truly classic Italian 1.8cc diesels, with what I would call very long 'necks', like a graceful swan. The Mancini Uranio, a new 4cc design, followed in late 1946. The last Mancini engine listed in the Annual is the 5.97cc Meteor 47, produced in 1947. I have not seen pictures of these last two engines, but based on Mr Mancini's previous designs, I will bet they were handsome..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Note this plan (and article) is an extract from the MBI (Motor Boys International) Model Engine Plan Book, 2nd Edition. This was originally published through the MEN site run by Ron Chernich, see http://www.modelenginenews.org/. Also see Mary's page on RCLibrary https://rclibrary.co.uk/title_details.asp?ID=2122 which hosts a copy of the book as submitted from MBI by Ken Croft, in accordance with Ron Chernich's wish that from 2013 onwards the book should be available, freely, to everyone as a PDF download.

Supplementary file notes

Article.

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