Hello Guys
So Piper announced that they will offer a Diesel-Seminole powered by the Conti CD-170 (170hp) Engine about 4 months ago.
I was wondering why Continental didn’t realy announced this Engine to date (except a short Pressrelease witch doesn’t realy tell much about the Engine). I would imagine this Engine could be a good Replacement for all the Lyco O-360‘s flying around. (C172/PA28/…) minus the weight Penalty
anyone around who knows more about the Engine, other than it is a more powerfull Version of the 135 and 155hp Conti (Thilert) Diesels?
My guess is it’s just a 155hp engine in a standard Seminole aimed at the European flight training market, as long as it cam lift a student and an instructor while burning next to no jet A then it will find a market.
Same engine now being used on the Tecnam P2010?
What would be interesting would be to use that engine in the DA42. The power of the Austro with the weight of the Continental. The STC already exists to replace the 135 with the 155 Continental and the DA42 is certificated with a pair of 180 bhp Lycomings.
The cd-170 is 18kg heavier than the cd-155 and the critical altitude is 6000ft versus 9k for the cd-155 – at 15k feet there is not much of an advantage – takeoff yes
What have they done to make it so much heavier?
I imagine the gearbox and intercooler – maybe some beefing up of the case
I still believe that Diesel engines like the CD-155 offer a lot of advantages in places like Southern Africa. We rent out Cessna 182s to foreign pilots coming to fly there and most of them have absolutely no clue on how to lean the engine and thus care for it. I am personally a big fan of Mike Busch’s theory on leaning and staying out of the red box area. Anyways, if we would replace the engines with a CD-155, the FADEC engine management would make it nearly impossible for foreign pilots to screw up the engine, they would get the turbo performance on top of it and the JET-A1 fuel is more widely available in Africa and a lot cheaper.
What am I missing in this theory that should stop me from replacing the engines with the diesel version?
The CD170 is a 155hp engine boosted to 168hp for a few minutes during take-off and climb. Rather like the Rotax 915iS is really only 135hp boosted to 141hp for take-off and the Diamond Austro engine is 155 hp boosted to 168hp for take-off.
Perhaps the CD170 will be good for heavier, higher drag, airframes or for use in the mountains, or perhaps glider tugging. Apart from the extra mass, however, the TBR is currently only 1,200 hours, so that could limit its take-up for a while.
