I bought a Seagull..

[Henk]

Hello, we bought a Seagull yesterday, to power the dinghy. A Seagull was for sale locally, and after some brief haggling 45 beer tokens were exchanged. Not a bad deal I thinks.
It's a Fourty Plus with a clutch, FPC, of 1978 vintage. It started up after the second pull, and seems to run well.

[Henk]

Hmm. Not sure why the gull has fallen over...
A few mor, before I start asking the dumb questions..

[Henk]

I've stripped the gearbox and cleaned the gunk out. I've cleaned everything externally, cleaned the float bowl inside, and removed the old, broken, throttle cable. The gearbox will be put back together with a new oil seal, and maybe new bronze bushes.
The brass fuel tank appears original in shape, but lacks any embossed lettering or stencils. It does appear to have been re-painted with gloss black. As can been seen in the pics, the tank is severely dented.
We bought this engine to push the dinghy, often, to start playing about on the canals and rivers locally, and a bit of inshore sea fishing. The plan is to clean up and make presentable the engine, without taking the polishing to far. The exhaust will get painted, as the finish is too far gone to polish up. The flywheel cover will also get painted.

[Henk]

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[headdownarseup]

The tank's not that bad really, i've seen MUCH WORSE, but you're right. The tank ends are normally embossed being a fairly late model. (i think it's had a replacement tank at some point in the past) It's also possible it might originally have had a steel tank once upon a time.
Flywheel gets painted gold, and you'd be surprised at how easily some aluminium will polish up with some elbow grease. (emery paper,steel wool and metal polish)

Apart from that, it looks pretty good to me for a few beer tokens.

Are you going to be brave and remove the cylinder head for a closer look inside the waterjacket? Just because it pumps water at the moment doesn't necessarily mean it will continue to do so.
You've come this far with it, why not go the full 9 yards with it. Better to be safe than sorry.

Jon

[Henk]

I may give the head bolts a tentative squeeze . However, there is some rust present on the cylinder block, so I gather it's not aluminium? So less likely to strip the threads? I'm gonna need a number of gaskets, is there a complete set with all in one available?

[Henk]

There's another question, which may seem silly, but indulge me. How are you supposed to stop the engine? I stopped it by holding my hand over the air intake.. which is ok when stationary on a bench,, but trying that in a bobbing dingy, near the spinning flywheel cover, seems a bit tricky. The only other way appears to be by shutting the fuel tap? Which seems a bit awkward when you have a direct drive engine?

[whigum]

Hey Henk,

Looks like you got a good deal there The block is cast iron, I think the thing to watch out for might be twisting the heads off the bolts if they are seized in, more than stripping threads. The engine will stop when you close the throttle, if you set it up so. Otherwise, you could do what I did recently and pull the plug cap.. honestly, it doesn't hurt that much!

[Hugz]

Sometimes if you lift the tiller handle it moves the carburetor slide just enough to stop the motor. Not sure if this is built into the design or a reality of the world. Personally l wouldn't risk removing head bolts but that is entirely up to you and your capabilities. It has be known that some less than experienced peeps have put a spanner on and hit with a hammer and wonder why the fastener head breaks off.

I've aleays wanted a longshaft clutched forty. Rare downunder, mostly 102's.

[Henk]

Hey Henk,

Looks like you got a good deal there The block is cast iron, I think the thing to watch out for might be twisting the heads off the bolts if they are seized in, more than stripping threads. The engine will stop when you close the throttle, if you set it up so. Otherwise, you could do what I did recently and pull the plug cap.. honestly, it doesn't hurt that much!

Not falling for that one.. I cut my teeth on a variety of mopeds I would not recommend checking for left over petrol in a C50 tank with a match ( yes he did, and no, my friend did not have any eyebrows left Oh the japes we got up to when we were young and stupid ).
So you basically set the carburettor tick over too low?

[Henk]

Sometimes if you lift the tiller handle it moves the carburetor slide just enough to stop the motor. Not sure if this is built into the design or a reality of the world. Personally l wouldn't risk removing head bolts but that is entirely up to you and your capabilities. It has be known that some less than experienced peeps have put a spanner on and hit with a hammer and wonder why the fastener head breaks off.

I've aleays wanted a longshaft clutched forty. Rare downunder, mostly 102's.

I learned a few moons ago when playing with small mopeds (mainly Vespa Ciao) that it is easy to take things apart, and not always easy to put it back together in working order. I also learned some interesting bodges to get home. Which tended to last a bit longer..
No hammers will be used if undoing head bolts.

[Henk]

As I won't be back home till the weekend, just some more pictures of what it all looks like now.

[headdownarseup]

They're really not that bad to work on, provided you're sensible in your approach to it all. Ask one of us if you're not sure.
As with any old machinery, heat can often help to ease those stubborn bolts.Easy enough to do, and well worth a closer look inside. They're a cast iron cylinder that if it hasn't been looked after properly will corrode like there's no tomorrow.You never can tell how blocked the waterjacket will be. It might look reasonable from the outside, but the inside often tells a very different story.The slight corrosion on the outside of the cylinder could be something, then again it could just be surface rust. All of the necessary gaskets are readily available. John stocks a large range for most seagulls.Give him a try.

Easiest way to set up your seagull throttle is like this.
Remove the round inlet cowl from the front of the carb so you can see the throttle slide that will move up/down with the throttle lever.
With the throttle lever fully closed, have a look and see if the throttle slide is all the way DOWN. If there's a small gap at the bottom (and it doesn't need a big gap to keep running) then an adjustment to the cable is in order.If your cable is badly kinked fit a new one. You'd be surprised at how much easier the throttle will work with a new cable, plus they're cheap enough to have a couple as spares.
Chances are there will be some kind of adjuster directly at the end of the cable.Turn this adjuster clockwise till there is no gap visible on the throttle slide itself.Provided you've got everything adjusted correctly, when you shut the throttle fully closed, the engine will stop too.

Sleeves up and get stuck in is my advice.

Jon

[whigum]

Looks like a nice little engine. Are you going to clean it up much, or leave it as a grubby work horse?

Honestly, I'm fairly new to Seagulls myself, so don't take what I say too seriously.. but after cleaning out the water jacket in my Century, I would say definitely do it if you are able. The way the water channel is, even if you are getting a good solid stream from the pee hole, your block may not be getting much cooling - all the pee stream tells you is that water is able to pass in and out of the block, 90% of the cooling jacket could be packed with rusty crud allowing no water around the most of the cylinder.. yet be peeing merrily as if on the beer

[Henk]

I'm convinced. I'll take the head off, after sourcing the required gaskets etc.
Yes, it's going to be a workhorse. For what we plan to do with the dinghy, anything bigger than a few horsepower would be excessive anyway. And I like the look of these industrial little engines.