Saving Old Seagulls

I was sent an email a few days ago. asking if I'd ever seen one of these tanks, & was it a Seagull product?

This was the second one he'd seen, which was 2 more than I have, HELP.

I suspect that’s not a seagull tank, maybe lawnmower or stationary engine?

How many lawnmowers & stationary engines had vertical crankshafts?

The water slide label makes it 50's or early 60's, as does the fuel cap (Jeremy what does your research suggest & is it an LS?)

There is a lot pointing to an "it could be".

Really interesting, presuming the tank has studs that bolt onto the head, and judging by the flywheel cut out as well as the fuel tap position,it really looks like it was made to fit a seagull or a similar outboard with the same thread type cap but the age related transfer and cap make it look like a seagull product, hopefully someone will shed some light...

I get the point about the cap and transfer giving it an authentic "Look" but if these had been factory surely they would have made a substantial batch, and we would of seen these before. The tank does not look mass produced at all, more like home made?

It looked like a very big press job to me, but I wouldn't bet on that.

You must work with sheet metal guys Oyster, show them the pictures & see how they think it was made.

I can see how the basic shape could be made with a fly press & a few bits of press tooling & several hours welding, but the corners & the clearance around the flywheel section are beyond my understanding.

I stretch press the coolie hat flywheel covers from copper & aluminium using a fly press, I couldn't dream of tackling this much sheet steel!

I was expecting someone to say this looks like a rocker cover from a 1936 Singer 10 or that sort of thing.

Would it be possible to get pictures from underneath ? It would be interesting to see if it's a correct fit onto the head or if there are any signs of alterations . I thought it may have been a Britannia tank but they're different .

I think those pictures came from Face ache.

I saw it for sale somewhere recently , it was Seagull outboard fans on Facebook indeed . I was intrigued by the tank but not enough to bid ! I've messaged the guy to see if he still has note of the serial number as it has been sold now .

The new owner has contacted me , serial is F680A0 .

Received these pictures from the new owner . Looks original

Cookie can you thank the new owner on our behalf, for the pictures!

Can you also ask him, if he takes the tank off, for some pictures of the hold-down bolts & the thread pattern & size, so we can see if they were factory or it's been modified since.

This is an interesting riddle we've been posed.

I have passed on your thanks and asked for further information should he remove the tank . Hopefully someone can shine some light on it ! According to the serial number , what tank should this motor have ?

Black brass oval with seagull end caps.

But quite a few bits give the impression it's older than the serial number.