Cessna 172 pilot reported an engine failure on short final.

Narrative:

The flight was normal until on a downwind just prior to recieving a vector to join the localizer for localizer back course runway xxr practice approach. We noticed a smell of burning electrical that was very brief. Ran checklist for electrical fire inflight and found no abnormality. Checked engine instruments and the oil pressure gauge was registering low as the indicator was just above the red line on the left side of the gauge. Next; I ran the checklist for oil pressure loss by reducing power and enrichening the mixture. I was going to ask for an immediate vector; but was given a descent and vector to the left to intercept the localizer for runway xxr. At this time the engine was running fine. I continued down the localizer and the engine was running normally. At MDA; the safety pilot called out 'runway in site' and I removed the view limiting device and as I added a little power the engine shuttered and shut off - this was less than 1 mile from runway xxr. [Name]; cfii and safety pilot for the flight; said 'my controls' and positive exchange of controls took place and he was then PIC. I started the checklist for power off landing. He [advised ATC] and continued toward runway xxr. At this time there was no power; we landed short of runway xxr on the blast pad. Rollout took us to taxiway. There was no damage to any airport structures; the airplane or us.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Cessna 172 pilot reported an engine failure on short final.

Narrative: The flight was normal until on a downwind just prior to recieving a vector to join the localizer for LOC BC RWY XXR practice approach. We noticed a smell of burning electrical that was very brief. Ran checklist for electrical fire inflight and found no abnormality. Checked engine instruments and the oil pressure gauge was registering low as the indicator was just above the red line on the left side of the gauge. Next; I ran the checklist for oil pressure loss by reducing power and enrichening the mixture. I was going to ask for an immediate vector; but was given a descent and vector to the left to intercept the localizer for RWY XXR. At this time the engine was running fine. I continued down the localizer and the engine was running normally. At MDA; the Safety Pilot called out 'runway in site' and I removed the view limiting device and as I added a little power the engine shuttered and shut off - this was less than 1 mile from RWY XXR. [Name]; CFII and Safety Pilot for the flight; said 'my controls' and positive exchange of controls took place and he was then PIC. I started the checklist for Power off Landing. He [advised ATC] and continued toward RWY XXR. At this time there was no power; we landed short of RWY XXR on the blast pad. Rollout took us to taxiway. There was no damage to any airport structures; the airplane or us.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.

Attributes
ACN	1741582
Time
Date	202004
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Final Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach
Flight Plan	None
Component
Aircraft Component	Engine
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Single Pilot
Qualification	Flight Crew Private Flight Crew Instrument
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 44.9 Flight Crew Total 261 Flight Crew Type 260.5
Events
Anomaly	Aircraft Equipment Problem Critical