British Seagull

[stan_deezy]

Re: British Seagull

Cheers mole: the tale has a bittersweet ending: I was really worried that those pesky kids might have kaputted a really good engine and one that they may have to rely on to get home. It was sold as a back up engine in a package with a Mariner 40 EPTO and although I was concerned I was happy that the main engine was perfect.<br />Heard nothing from the guy for three weeks and then I hear that there was a problem and I phone him to check: apparently the Mariner "blew" after 20 minutes in the water and the Seagull saved the day by starting first time and powering them back to the marina.<br />Dunno what happened with the Mariner because it was working great when it left here: I suspect it may have been run with cooling water despite the warinings not to!

 

[Nos4r2]

Re: British Seagull

You can't tell some people however hard you try though. While I was out last weekend I watched someone with a shetland launch and start up the yam outboard with the intakes out of the water for nearly a minute. I guess this time he was lucky as the pee stream started when he dropped the leg down.

 

[stan_deezy]

Re: British Seagull

very true Nos: people always know best......<br /><br />The kids were desperate to see that engine running and I have no doubt in my mind that the engine was run on the hard without water. Sounds like its terminal for the engine though which is a pity cos she was real pretty

 

[geoff69]

Re: British Seagull

As for the engine being dry when the kids got ahold of it, acording to what I have read, the Seagull is the only known engine that is capable of surviving submersion (ie: droped into Davies locker) without anything other than getting it out of the water putting in fresh gas. the plug will need to be removed to clear the cylinder, but from what I have read, this is true, the motor will be fine.

At one time in my long and checkered career I was a professional fisherman working out of Falmouth,UK.To get out to where I moored the boat I used a little 8 foot glass dinghy which I used to paddle out.Some kind person noted this and came down to the boat one day with this very ancient 1 1/2 seagull and said here you are it may save you rowing around if you can get it going,it was already about 30 years old and had not been used since God was a lad.To cut along story short,i cleaned it up and got it going and used it for a number of years.It was a little temperamental but you always knew it would start in the end,it was just like some women.One season we were fishing over in the Channel Islands for lobsters and kept the boat on a borrowed mooring at Goree.Now the tides there are like the Bay of Fundy,40 feet plus and like mill races.Well one night we came in and went ashore,courtesy of said seagull and had a few beers.On the way back to the boat quite a bit later ,at full tide, for some reason the seagull hopped off the transom and disappeared,luckily we didn't have to row far and when we got up in the morning we could see the seagull shining right on top of a 30 foot rock that had been covered.
I climbed up and retrieved it removed the plug and shook out the water,put in fresh mix and it started second pull.What I am trying to say is that Seagulls are fiddly, temperamental and underpowered but,God,they're reliable and have a special place in my heart.
Geoff69

 

[projecthog]

Re: British Seagull

molsenice: great to hear you got the old Gull working.<br />I have two: both ancient, and a great story with both:<br />Bought off ebay for pennies due to being "non-runners".....in both cases they came with "a full tank of fuel"....yep! you guessed it: one tank was six years old fuel and the other around twenty years old! Drained fuel, squirted carb cleaner through, checked plug and contact breaker points, mixed new fresh fuel (at 25-1 according to the manual I've got for the Seagull, not 10-1 like you guys are using) and away they both went: first pull and running perfect.<br />I wonder if the fuel mix was different for the North American market? I just been and checked my manual over agin and it definitely says 25-1. They seem to run great on it and not smokey or even noisy, and run cool rather than hot......wonder what the difference is and why the manual says 25-1?

Hello standeze,
I would also be interested in the difference if it wasn't a typo.

Low compression ratios will run cooler then tight higher ratios, the latter requiring better or more lube for cooling. Low compression enables use of more questionable quality (contaminated) gasolines also.
I think the compression ratio for the seagull sould probably run around 8.5:1.
or 9:1 maybe. Just guesses.
Did they make higher performance ones requiring 10:1 mix?

I was born and raised (well...they tried) in the Netherlands, (stubborn as hell, and always right,) and while growing up I played with a half a million different twostrokers from 49 CC's to 500 cc's and had one or another apart about every week. The European moped and small bike markets (including small cars of Sardine can fame) were unbelievably crowded. Great time to be a kid, in the 60's!
Most of anything twostroke in that day, late 50's to most of the 60's was mixed by hand before Shell came out with a premix for them at the pumps.
They called that stuff "Shellina premix"

Our hand mixes were almost uniformly 25:1 for those little engines unless it was a specific type of application that needed a different mix.
That ratio was used with any lubricant from Castor to just "motor oil".
We had fun with vegetable oils and anything else that would smell as long as it mixed, just to be different.

Now...I realize that 25:1 is a little (2x) richer then today's mixes, but 45-50 years ago, lubes were basic at best. Specific mix lubes were only just coming into their own.
So for the manual to say 25:1 as you quoted, doesn't surprise me and will definitely not hurt as bad as running the old engines too lean at 50:1. Whereas 10:1 seems very rich.

Probably a typo.

I would like to know too though.
If the manuals did have that difference in mix amounts, it would be interesting to me to find out why.

I would love to get a hold of an old Seagull, or any other simple outboard. The Seagull was still sold new up in BC when I lived there in the 70's, the price on a particular one I was interested in was $200 or $280 new or thereabouts, if I remember right.
There was still a few rebuilders around in Vancouver BC 4-5 years ago.

Take care,
PH.

Read on further and saw 10:1 ratio is acurate, well....It shouldn't seize!
Never too old to learn.

 

[keith-uk]

Re: British Seagull

On my seagull tank it has, - ONE PINT TO ONE GALLON, so thats about 1:10 with no bearings in the engine it needs it, but some seagulls that started life as a 1:10 can have the carb needle changed so it will run on a 1:25 mix.

 

[mikewhite]

Re: British Seagull

I have recently sold my boat with my Seagull silver Centry Pluss on it. My understanding on seagulls is that everything pre 1985 was designed to run on 10:1 (athough be aware that any post '85 service would have been a needle change by default) but a 25:1 needle is easily changable and would give a smoother and more economical run. If you (carefully) remove the needle jet from the bottom of the (amal II) carb there is a number stamped on it that number tells you whether it is 10:1 or 25:1. See SOS seagulls for more information.

 

[keith-uk]

Re: British Seagull

Not all seagull can run on the 25:1 as the older ones do not have bearings only bushes and need the oil, later models can be converted as they have bearings.