New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

[country_bumpkin]

I saw this engine pop up on craigslist:

$25...I called withing 4 minutes of the posting. The guy said it had been in storage for 25 years, it was his little brothers. It was running when his little brother sold the boat. He pulled the cord, it was free. I jumped on it, took it home, put a little 50:1 in it, opened the fuel line, choked it, and in 6 pulls it fired up like a champ!

So, not owning an outboard, ever in my life, what should I do to get it ready to use on a small aluminum flat bottom, v hull or canoe?

It's 3.5 HP and oh, model # is VWB19068. Any advice, help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
CB

EDIT: actually I have had a few outboards, a 4 stroke 4 hp Yamaha (2002) on my last sailboat, and a 2 stroke 5 hp Merc on my current sailboat.

CB

 

[F_R]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Hey, if it runs and the tank is clean, take it for a ride. It may not need anything. Check the lower unit lube first. That one does not have a water pump, so no worry there.

Better verify that 50:1 oil. I'm not sure what was spec'd for that model, but even if it is 50:1, that is not enough to suit me. Also, if it were me, I'd use chainsaw oil. That baby runs a lot hotter than a water cooled motor.

 

[country_bumpkin]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

The 50:1 was just lying around for the weedwacker/chainsaw etc. Looks like I probably should be going with 24:1?

The lower unit has 2 screws. Looks like one to drain and one to fill. I'll replace the oil before I use it.

One thing I did notice was something dripping from the lower unit after I ran it. Black and oily. I didn't look too close. I also noticed that it looks like the exhuaust empty out onto the propelar? Could this just be an oil/gas mixture from the exhaust? Could leaning out the mix eliminate this discharge?

Thanks for any input. I'm also going on ebay to see if I can get an original owners manual.

CB

 

[F_R]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Yeah, unburned fuel. Not to worry.

24:1 should be OK. Truth is, that powerhead is an engine that was originally designed for chainsaws and go-kart engines. The original engines ran on 16:1.

BTW, your outboard was made by Chrysler, orignially West Bend. The same thing was also made for Sears under the Elgin label.

 

[steelespike]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

From my research it appears the Sea King 3.5 was A West Bend built only 64-65 Sea King. It appears all the 3.5s through 69 were 16:1 fuel mix.It has an air cooled power head with a water cooled exhaust leg.West Bend purchased by Chrysler Chrysler production began in 66.3.5 production ended after 69 with the 70 3.6.3.6 Esentially the same motor mix is 25:1 with 16:1 suggested for severe service.Main bearings and crank pin are bushings.

 

[country_bumpkin]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Well, since it started, all I did was take off the carb and cleaned it real well (along with the fuel line and tank). I had to make my own gaskets but that was easy. Drained and replaced the oil in the lower unit. Oh, and I took some bondo to the dents and dings in the cover/tank, then repainted it.

Saturday we put it on a 16' canoe and dropped it in the Harpeth River. It had a little problem staying running in the begining. It would run for a few minutes then cut out, but always would start on the first pull after another minute of rest. Looking the motor angle it was kind leaning back with the slope of the transom. I adjusted the angle so the motor was upright fired it up and 14 miles later we pulled the canoe out at our destination.

That was fun!

The 3.5 is just enough to push that canoe at a decent speed with 3 passengers, I bet it would even plane out if it was just my son.

Thanks for the info.

 

[steelespike]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

A canoe(even a square stern doesn't plane very well but if you had a tiller extension one person could get it going pretty good.
The exhaust leg is water cooled it appears no pump. Water is pushed up a tube under the antivent (cavitation)plate just above the prop.

 

[country_bumpkin]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

A quick picture to show how it cleaned up. This was after the 13 mile trip

 

[adrianriggs]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Impressed! I just bought 2 of these old gals. I've never owned outboards before so it will be interesting. I got 2 that both ran 2 years ago for $100 so I figured I can't go wrong. All internals are super clean and I cleaned the carbs. What type of oil did you use for the lower end??? 80/90W???
Also any other info or what you learned about these motors would be nice.

BTW how did you mount to your canoe? Square back of did you make a mount? if so pics of the mount would be awesome!

Thanks Adrian

 

[country_bumpkin]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Thanks, lower end I used 90W gear oil purchased from Advanced Auto.

The canoe has a square transom, so mounting was easy. Would love to see your results, I really had a lot of fun in the few days I played with this motor.

 

[adrianriggs]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Makes sense. LOL I will be mounting both of mine to a 12 foot tinny. 7hp right. LOL I takeled one tonight with GREAT results! cleaned gaped the points, cleaned the carb, replaced plug and bottom end oil. Darn thing flashed up FIRST pull!!! Im very impressed! Now I just need to get it on a lake and tune it. I think I'll tackel the second one tomorrow...

 

[Randycr]

Sea King 3.5

Sea King 3.5

I saw this engine pop up on craigslist:

$25...I called withing 4 minutes of the posting. The guy said it had been in storage for 25 years, it was his little brothers. It was running when his little brother sold the boat. He pulled the cord, it was free. I jumped on it, took it home, put a little 50:1 in it, opened the fuel line, choked it, and in 6 pulls it fired up like a champ!

So, not owning an outboard, ever in my life, what should I do to get it ready to use on a small aluminum flat bottom, v hull or canoe?

It's 3.5 HP and oh, model # is VWB19068. Any advice, help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
CB

EDIT: actually I have had a few outboards, a 4 stroke 4 hp Yamaha (2002) on my last sailboat, and a 2 stroke 5 hp Merc on my current sailboat.

I have the same model sea king. Can you tell me what spark plug it uses? Thanks. Randy

 

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

Re: New Owner: 3.5 hp Sea King-?? to do to use regularly?

Very friendly little motors! As FR pointed out the original powerhead was a West Bend design used in lawn & industrial implements and for go karting. As he ALSO pointed out they are a BUSHING engine! There are NO full anti-friction bearings such as ball, roller or needle bearings anywhere in that engine. So feed it a 16/1 mix and it should outlast you, but starve a bushing engine on oil at your own hazard!

Another concern is the water tube extending forward from the exhaust outlet. As long as the motor is on a boat and it is underway the forward motion thru the water in combination with the rearward push of water by the prop will send coolant up to the critical lower bearing and seal area and thence down thru the exhaust outlet. It's a very well thought out and efficient system that eliminates a waterpump that can fail. BUT----it comes with caveats-----

Forget about running the motor in a test tank---it must be used as described above to function at all.

That forward pointing tube is easy to get stopped up with any sort of debris, mud or ? in the water. If you run it thru weedy or shallow waters check often to be sure it's open. It doesn't take long to cook lower crank bushings.

Used intelligently and within their designed parameters there's nothing wrong with bushing engines. After all that's all there was until well after WW2 and people got in a lot of boating using them.