The other thing about those “Cats” in San Diego is I think every one of them is running an Ellison Throttle Body for a carburetor. I have an Ellison on my biplane and know them well so if you wind up with a Bucker with an Ellison, you won’t be lost in the woods.

I had the Ellison; it ran great! You have to pump grease into the valve covers on the Tigre. It also burns a ton of oil and you need to retorque the cylinder heads every X number of hours. The mags were quirky too. It's not a bad engine but I would rather have a nicely installed Lycoming.

I’ve flown all the variations of the Stearman except one with an R-1340. The 300 Lycoming is the nicest is my opinion. A 450 is fun.

I haven’t flown a Jungmann, but I have flown a couple of Jungmeisters. One had 260hp and one had 300hp. As mentioned earlier they are in a different class than the Stearman.

The one I'm looking at has the O-360 with inverted fuel and oil.

Was the 300hp version the monster Swik creation with an M14P?

That looks like Jeff Rowland's airplane.

Was the 300hp version the monster Swik creation with an M14P?

The one I'm looking at has the O-360 with inverted fuel and oil.[/quote]

As long as the Lycoming conversion has the same high thrust line as the Tigre, Hirth, and Siemens original powerplants, its OK. Some conversions, for the sake of simplicity, place the crankshaft at a lower point on the longitudinal axis of the fuselage, compromising the sterling flying abilities of the airplane.
Doing an esthetically pleasing cowling adaptation is a challenge.
Frank Price singlehandedly, and at his own expense, challenged ten Soviet sponsored pilots at the World Aerobatic Championships in Czechoslovakia in 1960, with his own Great Lakes. He came back with a great amount of information on Bückers, no doubt imparted by José Aresti, a Spanish nobleman that designed the currently used aerobatic figure drawings for competition. The Buckers were manufactured in Spain under license after WWII.
Frank eventually imported upwards of ten Bückers, and modified them with the help of Jim Swick (of Swick T fame), to include the adaptation of Lycoming engines.
Of note, the Bücker Jungman and Jungmeisters propelled young German pilots into the cockpits of high-performance fighters, such as the Me-109 and Focke Wulf 190.

TN

Sounds ideal to me, do you know the empty weight?

The Ellison is a slide carburetor with no float bowl and chosen for it’s inverted capabilities.

My dad got his tailwheel endorsement in a Bucher N52DM back in 1979, it was owned by his friend Steve. Said it was an amazing aircraft and on his bucket list is a ride in another one. For that right there, I vote Bucher.

Steve Franklin can tell you much.
John Price too.

2nd that on the 300hp R-680 Stearman. If not at high altitude it's the best compromise of power to weight and simplicity of installation. No rear oil tank or oil cooler to deal with. Lighter prop, Fast cruise, nice handling and gets off the ground like a SuperCub.

R-985 is great for brute force aerobatics but not as nice every day flying.