Franklin 220HP in a 172H?

jfrye01

jfrye01

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Jacob Frye
I have a friend with a Franklin powered 172B, I've had the pleasure of flying it and I absolutely love the power and performance. Last cross country I flew it on, I was seeing close to 130kts true...fuel burn was about 10.5 gph. It's a great cross country machine and excellent short field performer. I'm very interested in this conversion and as far as I know the STC is available for my airplane (172H). Seems like people either love or hate the Franklin 6A-350-C1R, and I'm curious as to what everyone here thinks...I've searched the forums and haven't found much information on this specific conversion. If anyone can point me in the direction of pricing, engine sourcing, etc., I would appreciate it! Thanks!
 
Consider a search on maintaining Franklins as part of the decision. The hot ticket is upgrading to Lycoming 180HP O-360 for same performance. The hot-hot ticket is the Skyhawk XP with a Continental IO-360K at 195hp. There is also an STC mod to make it 215 HP if memory serves.
 
It would seem to me that a 220hp 172 is pretty much a 230hp 182 with that's a little short on power and has a bit more drag.
 
They were mostly done in Vancouver, WA. Forget his name but he converted about 50 airplanes and were brand new, and most were floatplanes.
 
PZL Franklin (220 horse) hasn't produced engine for a long time..
The STC is no longer supported. Tom Anderson was doing them, I lost track of him a while back.
The last I knew the cost for the engine mount was $15K
It's a shame it was a great idea.

There are a few 165 horse franklins still around in Cessna 170s it was an alternate engine for them.
 
220hp and 130 ktas? what power setting is that? That seems rather slow given all that power. Is there a change to the useful load associated with that? The SR20 is criticized for lackluster performance but that will at least do around 140 knots true or slightly greater on less horsepower

Why not just fly a 182?

The 180 conversions are great. The ones I flew climbed exceptionally well and cruised decently fast.. seems to give you just that little bit of extra performance the 160s lack
 
I have the old Alcon conversion(180hp, CSP) in a 172(1968). I love it, but would sell what you have a and buy a 182. Having enough fuel(range) is just as important as speed. I have 60 gal of fuel in mine, but would rather have the 150hp engine if I only had 40 gal.
 
Tantalum said:
220hp and 130 ktas? what power setting is that?
Click to expand...

Fire-walled, no doubt. Remember, we’re talking about a 172: wing struts, rivets, hangar rash, probably no pants. The works. Actually, 130 on 10.5 gph doesn’t sound that bad, compared to probably 135 at 12-13 gph for the 182.

But you’ll be a lot more comfortable in the 182.
 
Why get an oddball engine on the same meh airframe? You're much better off going faster, being more comfortable and better supported getting a Tiger, which burns similar gas.
 
Now every one knows why there are very few of them.
Were they cheaper, and plentiful that would be a different story.

The best of the bunch was the C-175/Franklin 220.
 
Because the OP already has his/her airplane without the conversion, and is asking about known downsides, benefits, and resources/links.

If you care about cost- I would calculate the initial cost difference, plus the maintenance cost difference. Then figure out the fuel burn vs distance. And any resale value increase. And then compare to other models (182, 172XP, 177, etc).
 
I have a chunk of hours in a C175 with that motor. Loved flying it. Useful load was well over 1,000lbs and would climb 1,000fpm to 8,000 ft all day.

Still a draggy C175 but would true out around 135. Reminded me a lot of a C182 but was still light in pitch unlike the 182.
 
I know a guy that has one and loves it, but he's also an A&P, IA and does his own work. The conversion cost is likely pretty spendy and I would be a little concerned about support. I have a C172N with an AirPlains O-360 conversion and for my mission it's hard to beat, however, unless you found a cheap engine the conversion costs is just far too expensive to justify.

That was a long way of saying, unless money is no object, if you want more performance buy a different aircraft...
 
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