With the recent talk regarding 169s and their 13-fin engines, I received an email from a regular forum member asking me to chime in with some info from the data I've been collecting on 169s and thier engines.
I have to admit, I've wanted to say something awhile back, but have kept quiet because what I would say goes against the current beliefs.
Right now there is not much data to work with, but what we have points to an almost
EVEN DISTRUBUTION BETWEEN 12-FIN AND 13-FIN ENGINES in the 169 model line. Here is a screen-shot of the data with the owner's names removed:
I know it's hard to read so I'll sum it up by saying that we currently have 15 169s in the database and just over half of them have 13 fin engines, while the remaining tractors have 12-fin engines.
Here's my uneducated speculation... I think there has been a FALSE belief that the only original engine for a 169 is a 13-fin engine. There are just too many 12-fin engines showing up for me to believe that. While the 13-fin engines could be thought of as somewhat more
desirable due to the fact that there is more meat on the engine to bore them out, it seems as though BOTH types of engines are original and "correct" to these tractors.
Heck, at this point one could almost say a 169 with the original 12-fin engine is a more "rare" tractor.