Sea King Motor question

[Idaho Joe]

New here and just wanted to know about a motor I bought yesterday from craigslist. It's a Sea King motor and the guy said it was a 15HP. Can anyone tell me about the motor? Mix ratio? He said 50:1. Motor runs great in the bucket so we'll see this weekend. What kind of things should I look out for? replacement parts etc.....

Model Number is GG9024A
Serial Number is 65XC09861

 

[mrcrabs]

Re: Sea King Motor question

well he was wrong about the HP so I wouldn't trust his mix ratio either, and with a little searching of the forum I found this info for you...

tmcalavy
Captain
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,565

Re: 1956? 12hp, Sea King

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Hey Pete...another Texican on the board. Your Sea King was made by OMC/Evinrude/Johnson by their Gale Mfg. division for Monkey Wards. There should be a plate on the front of the transom clamp with a series of numbers, and GG in there somewhere. If yours is a 56, those numbers will be reversed in the string, like 65GGXXXX. Any good OMC dealer can get parts for it, cause it uses the same parts as Evinrude/Johnsons of that era, points/coils/condensors/impellers, etc. The fuel pump diaphragm (rubber) is probably shot...new pump costs less than $50, especially on the auction sites. Probably need to pull the carb, soak it in cleaner, blow it out with compressed air and reassemble/install. It uses a Champion J6C or J4C plug gapped at .030, points are set at .020 and fuel/oil mix ratio is 16:1...about 1/2 pint oil per gallon. Let us know how it goes...somewhere on the board is post called "awakening a sleeping outboard," has most of the info you will need to get it running sweetly again.

http://www.iboats.com/Sea_King__GG9024A__12hp__1956/bpe/56e13278r0

 

[Idaho Joe]

Re: Sea King Motor question

Thanks for the reply. After doing some research I found out it is a 12 HP motor rather than a 15. Mine has the electric start and pull start and when I hooked up a battery and jumper cables it started right up so both ways work great. I ran acros some info that said to use regular leaded gas and mix SAE 30 oil as well. There is only one gas station in my area that still has regular gas. so should I do that or use unleaded with regular 2 cycle outboard oil and will the mix ratio be different. My guess is it's better to run a little rich and smokey than on the leaner side??

 

[mrcrabs]

Re: Sea King Motor question

I would definitely use the tcw3 rated oil and regular gas...the mix will be the question, I wouldn't want to make that call with your outboard...others here may have there opinions and knowing that your motor is closely related to the evinrude & johnson family, you might search the other forums for more info on that situation, that being said it does call for 16:1

 

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

Re: Sea King Motor question

I ran acros some info that said to use regular leaded gas and mix SAE 30 oil as well. There is only one gas station in my area that still has regular gas. so should I do that or use unleaded with regular 2 cycle outboard oil and will the mix ratio be different. My guess is it's better to run a little rich and smokey than on the leaner side??

Use the TCW-3 outboard oil---it's much better for the motor than older oils.

As far as the mix ratio goes never try to 2nd guess the engineers that designed the motor! I shudder to think of all the outboards that have been ruined or worn out long before their time because the owner bought the sales hype of some oil pitchman. "Snake oil salesmen' as I call them have been pitching lean oil mixes for decades with wild claims about the 'magic properties' of their brand of oil. There has been massive improvements in oils over the years, no doubt about it, but the only ones of concern to the outboarder are the ones already incorporated in TCW-3. And just exactly why anyone would think they know more about the lubrication requirements of an engine than the man or engineering department that designed it seems very strange to the logical mind!

EDIT: If you can get 'real' gas without alcohol in it by ALL means use it! After finding out that I almost invariably had to clean the carbs again when I wanted to run one of my old collectibles after it had set a year or more I found a source for the 'real thing' and have had no further problems. The float bowls of the motors that had gasohol ran in them invariably had a green goo in them even tho I always try to run a carb dry before it goes back on standby. Some time in the last few days I read that gasohol even damaged transportation pipelines unaffected by gasoline because it is so corrosive. So if you can find the real thing then use it!

 

[steelespike]

Re: Sea King Motor question

When refering to regular gas thats regular unleaded. and they mean it when they say 16:1

 

[Idaho Joe]

Re: Sea King Motor question

Thanks for the replies. About the "regular" gasoline I'll have to check it out. I want to think it's the "real" regular gas with lead and not the regular unleaded. I will try to stay away from the regular unleaded with 10% ethanol and will use the recommended oil you are all telling me to use. Also on this site I was looking for an extr prop and could not find one but also read that early Johnson props will fit. I noticed that a 1955 johnson was available but am unsure about size and pitch??? One last question and it may be a dumb one but I dont know crap about outboards. When the motor was running in the bucket there was no water coming out of the motor. Is there supposed to be water coming from somewhere or maybe I did not see it?

 

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

Re: Sea King Motor question

--One last question and it may be a dumb one but I dont know crap about outboards. When the motor was running in the bucket there was no water coming out of the motor. Is there supposed to be water coming from somewhere or maybe I did not see it?

The vast majority of outboards have some sort of 'tell-tale' or 'pee-hole' to tell the operator if the cooling system is working properly. I'm not familiar with the 12 horse but all of my smaller Sea King/Gale motors have them. Don't run your motor any further until you find out for sure!

FWIW---whenever I get a motor the first thing I do is get a new impeller on order unless I personally helped the previous owner replace it recently. That little hunk of rubber (that deteriorates with time) is the only thing that stands between a sweet running friend and a dead soldier! And should an old, semi-petrified impeller disintegrate and IF you are fortunate enough to catch the problem before the motor is cooked you don't even want to know what it can take to get all the bits and pieces out of the pipes and cooling passages!
While some advocate replacement of the impeller annually as a cheap form of insurance I'm not that dogmatic about it. But I ALWAYS start my association with a strange motor with a cooling system check & tune-up. All other systems are checked and rehabbed AFTER I'm sure I'm not going to overcook my new toy!

For more definitive info on your motor I suggest you ask the old motor experts on the AOMCI 'Ask-a-member' forum.

<http://www.aomci.org/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?board=askamember>

EDIT: BTW---my Intertec manual calls for fuel/oil ratio of 24 to 1 on your motor but 16/1 will work just fine. You'll never err by feeding the older motors a little more oil!

 

[F_R]

Re: Sea King Motor question

The Gale manual says 24:1 I doubt that regular leaded is available anywhere, but might be for special off-road purposes. However, back when that motor was made, people went out of their way to find "marine white" gas---unleaded. Now it is everywhere. But it has been complicated by the additon of ethanol. Ethanol is a controversial subject. Now, if you could find regular unleaded without ethanol, that would be perfect.

There should be a healthy spray of water out of the thumb-sized hole in the back of the midsection any time it is running. If not, you will burn it up in short order.

 

[Idaho Joe]

Re: Sea King Motor question

Got it guys, Thanks. I went and bought a 50 gallon drum and filled it up and ran the motor for 15 minutes or so, Went through the forward and reverse gears. Everything worked great and YES water was coming out from the pee hole. not a steady pee like stream like you see on newer motors but rather a steady spray like me when I ****!! I'm going to take it in just for good measure if I can find some one who will be will to look at it since it's so old and get a complete go through before I get it ready to sand down and re paint. I found a site that has all the old decals but they did not have a decal that said "electric starting" as my motor has. The prop is in good shape but I want another to be safe and I was told that a 55 Johnson motor shares the same prop??

 

[mrcrabs]

Re: Sea King Motor question

but rather a steady spray like me when I ****!!

Glad your doing well, sometimes I myself think...boy if only took a new impeller to get my johnson working right, oh how lucky I would be...

 

[Idaho Joe]

Re: Sea King Motor question

So are these motors prone to overheating? I noticed when I took it out and ran it for about 15 minutes it made a hollow tinny type of sound and I backed off the throttle and the motor died and I could not get it to pull start or electric start. It felt like it was stuck in forward or I seized the motor. I took it home and let it cool down completely and took off the hood and hooked up a ratchet to the top of the motor and began to turn it. Fortunately I was able to get it moving so I know the piston was not stuck in the cylinder. it was tough to move at first but after letting it cool down more over night it seems to turn like it should with a little more resistance at top dead center. I added more oil to the mix as the bozo I bought it from said 50:1 but I think it's more like 16:1 which is the new mix I am running. Going to put everything back together and try to start it so we'll see what happens. I hope I did not screw anything up to bad but if I did cost wise would it be better to fix or buy a new motor?

 

[F_R]

Re: Sea King Motor question

What is in the lower unit? Oil, I hope. And not water.

About that "pee". It should blow a heavy spray of water out that big hole in the rear. There is no "tinkle" unless somebody has added one.

If you overheated it to the point of siezure, well good luck.

 

[Idaho Joe]

Re: Sea King Motor question

Thanks F.R. that brings up another question. On the lower unit I see a small panel for oil. Is this where I am check to see if there is oil? and How do I add the neccasary fluids in the lower unit? I noticed when the motor was running in the bucket that there was a small pin hole on the upper part of the lower unit that had oil or grease coming out of it when the motor was running. In looking at the hole it looks like it was made to be there. I will take some pics and post so you can see what I am talking about.