Kiwi Seagull site

[fleetingcontact]

I've been going through old notes and bookmarks lately, and reminded myself of a site I'm sure at least a few of you are familiar with.

One part of the site talks about racing and tuning and makes a few interesting statements. Here's one, wondered what any of you may have to say about it.

[Nudge]

So where did you find that?
It may work ok if you have a nice new / tight gearbox but I think if I was to put it in one of mine it would only be in there for about 5 minutes
Or if the engine was lying down in the back of the car (taking it to the water) I would need to put an oil pan under it!

[Oyster 49]

I put some 20/50 in one of my engines once as that was all I had, most of it was on the floor within an hour!

[fleetingcontact]

Yup, the author of this notion points out the downside is that the oil leaks faster. The positive is supposed to be that less friction is generated in the box, thus reduced loss of power to the prop.

The website in question is seagulloutboard.com, look under tips and tricks.

Here's another I find interesting:

I know these things have been gone over before but I don't recall anyone saying quite this so again any comments?

[Nudge]

I cant see how 10 / 40 can help I'm sure it is thinner than SAE 30? Go to a mower shop they will still say to use 30 in your small engines

[fleetingcontact]

Nope, 10/40 is heavier.

"...the 40 in a 10w-40 simply means that the oil must fall within certain viscosity limits at 100°C. This is a fixed limit and all oils that end in 40 must achieve these limits. Once again the lower the number, the thinner the oil: a 30 oil is thinner than a 40 oil at 100°C..."

I don't have an engine I'd feel like trying it with though, but bio-degradable 10/40 is available.

Here's another statement from the same site I might do something with, again any comments?

[Hugz]

The original com8 plug had the electrode off centre. Maybe we need to go back to that. I've never had a whiskered plug on a seagull. On my sachs motorised bicycle, yes!

[fleetingcontact]

Its true that I seem to have fewer issues with a motor that has an 8com fitted. Just seems to run better. But then again my car seems to run better after I've cleaned it. I've never seen whiskering on any plug, but then again I don't mind cleaning the plug often. Perhaps the whiskering the Kiwi site talsk about occurs a lot if you use 40-weight oil, it would work fine but also produe a higher level of coking - at least, as I understand it one of the properties of actual two-stroke oil is that it is specifically marketed as 'low-coke' oil.

As for filing the electrode, I might try this on a D16 or summat but I suspect the downside will be shorter life - the electrode will be more likely to burn out?

I guess all of those things are about racing, where the short-term benefit is everything.

[Hugz]

Most 2 strokes are shut off by shorting the electrics while we starve the fuel, wonder if that makes a difference? Wonder if they whisker in the last dying revolutions as l only notice whiskering when they wont start.