On Jul 30, 11:01 pm, tony roberts
wrote:
Of course there is always the venerable grin 172 but it would have to be
at least an N model.

In my opinion that would be a mistake.
The 0-300D is a far superior engine to the earlier 172 Lycomings.
Smoother, more reliable - a good engine that will always bring you home
if you look after it.

The 172 never used the earlier narrow-deck Lycomings. Those were
found in other airplanes. Cessna went to the Lyc O-320-E2D from the
O-300 in about 1969 and never looked back. The Continental had a
shorter TBO and the cylinders used on small Continentals often don't
make it that far. They're the same cylinders used on O-200s and often
need valve work about halfway through the engine life. We had 150's
with those engines and spent nearly as much money overall on the 150
as we do on the 172. Our Lycomings run nicely all the way to TBO, and
that's in a more abusive flight training environment. Any engine that
sits without flying frquently, or that is flown on very short flights
so that the oil never gets hot, will tend to rust out long before TBO.
We run three 172Ms. We won't touch the N model, because that
model had the O-320H2AD, a disastrous engine that has a long AD
history. The folks around here that run them say that they seldom
reach TBO. It has little relation to the E2D. The 172P corrected that
hassle with yet another engine model, the D2J. If we were rich we
would buy some new S models.
Any airplane you are considering should be checked against
possible ADs. You can find them on the FAA website. Check the engine
models, too; they have their own section. Propellers are also
separate, and there's an accessories section that can take a long time
to wade through. See http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Gu...e?OpenFrameSet
You don't want any nasty surprises after you buy an airplane.
There are plenty out there that have outstanding ADs.

Dan