Centurion Diesel Engines C172 & PA28

[nomorecatering]

For a number of years I have been watching the developement of Diesel cycle engines for GA aircraft and noted there is a company form the states thats offering new C172R's refitted with Centurion 1.7 or 2.0 diesel engines.

Am involved in a project for a fleet renewal and considering new a/c or older ones, both fitted with the Centurion engine, also ones fitted with conventional Avgas burning engines.

Are the centurion engines living up to the promises, fuel burn, operating costs, reliability, despatch reliability, parts availability etc. I;d be very interested in hearing from any operators who have experiance with these engines. Also real world performance comparisons.

Cheers all.

[JW411]

The diesel PA-28 on my local airfield is up for sale. Speaking purely as an observer I can tell you that it has spent a lot of time in the hangar.

I also read in an incident summary about a DA40 that the aircraft concerned was on its third engine.