Saving Old Seagulls

blue metal, seems to be The common fine-grained blue grey mud stone which is part of many of the coal beds of England, a hard rock, bluish in color, which is crushed and used in macadam, I used to be a crusher operator, amount other things, for MOT and the like and I didn't know that either.

well....I do have some gravel, hot water and soap

I think you need smaller stones that have sharp broken surfaces so they will get into all the nooks and crannies. Actually I only use degreaser and then flush out, never seems to be a problem.

AJ

Would be good if at least some were sharper, the smallest 4 look the right size. They need to have good clearance from the filler hole as they need to come out of there as well. Could easily break some up with a 6 lb. hammer, put them in a strong but flexible bag and a couple of good shots with the hammer should do it.

Some use drywall screws or regular nuts and bolts.

Took a couple of photos, first of blue metal and the second of gravel . The blue metal comes in various sizes all the way down to 5mm. The example in the photo is 25 mm.

The photo of the gravel is from a Tasmanian road. I have some 30 kl of this to drive to reach our house so I often have a grumble at the state of the pot holes and washout that need negotiating. About once ever 6 months the council runs a grader you and down the road to reshape it.

AJ

Adrian,I have the same gravel on my driveway like you do. I will do some more cleaning this coming weekend. The idea of cleaning the tank with degreaser and call it good - resonates with me well tonight
I think I may try to start it up this weekend too.....would like to see if I will get good stream of cooling water going trough the motor....and how it will run in an idle.
Thank you for your input guys!!

Wojo

your not pulling my chain are you B !

AJ

The " blue metal" you show is the size and sharpness we get if we order driveway gravel or drain rock ( drain rock for house foundation drains, goes around the perforated black plastic pipe.)

The stuff on your driveway would be under the gravel we use, it would be called pit run sand or pit run gravel.

Interesting differences between various forms of the English language.

Here's another way to clean out an old tank.
(bear in mind this will work better on brass tanks than steel tanks)

Firstly, empty out any old fuel/oil mix that might be in there. Remove the fuel tap and replace with a suitable bung of some kind. (i use the blanking plug from the later steel tanks)
Secondly, add a couple of spoonfulls of sharp sand (we call it building sand over here, quite coarse in texture) and add about 1/2 pint of water to the tank, refit the fuel cap and swirl away for about 30 mins.
Empty the contents from the tank and flush out with a garden hose.

Just to make sure, i then give everything a good soaking with caustic soda for a couple of days, periodically giving the tank a little shake.

Flush out any nasties and leave to dry. Repaint the outside and finish with a new decal from JOHN.

Works a treat



Steel tanks need to be treated differently.
Depending on how mechanically adept you are cut the tank in half along its seam(making sure there is absolutely no trace of fuel which could cause an explosion )
So with 2 halves of the tank now exposed you'll see the extent of the corrosion. (it's at this point you think "why did i do this" and look for another brass tank)
Treat the rust/corrosion with proprietry brands of chemicals, wire brushes,rust converters etc. weld the 2 halves back together and repaint the outside.
To be doubly sure that corrosion is kept to a minimum, there are some brands of tank sealer on the market. (originally used in the motorcycle industry)
Add the contents to the tank, and with a bit of luck, you'll have a steel tank that will last for quite a while.

Just my two penneth


jon

OK...I have everything back together, and today I started the motor.
Test went well and I am ready to install it on the boat.
....could not attach video

thank you !
I took it out this morning, added little more gas to the tank.....could not start for maybe 10 pulls...but finally did.
Did not try any close to full speed, but learned from this trial a lot. To start I need and extended tiller - and I standard extension will not be long enough, because I need to sit in the middle of the boat length.
here is a video from Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/wojo.mcwalczak ... nref=story

went out again last weekend. had a 4' long tiller extension mounted....seems that steering with the motor is not that good, probably because of the long tiller. Not sure if I had the motor going full speed....the rpm did change once during running it. I ws expecting the boat go little faster - max HP for this boat is 7hp....and forty plus is only 2-3 hp....

https://www.facebook.com/wojo.mcwalczak ... nref=story