Saving Old Seagulls

Hey Guys,

Im at home every night working on my Seagull and i was wondering does anybody have any hints on getting 20+years of baked on dirt and grease? i have tried caustic soda on the Brass bracket (photos below) but still took a wire brush and a few hours to remove it. the engine is going to be harder because of the shape. any ideas?

Steam clean it?? I used it for my block and it worked a treat getting all the muck out

ill try that, iv just moved to scotland and drove from Dublin to Aberdeen with the engine in the car, been working on it since jan. I watched ur Vid. ur engine looks killer. take u long to clean her up?
Did you take the flywheel off to paint it?

Thank you for your comment

It didnt take too long. I used high temperature spray paint for the block, silver hammerite for the silver parts (eg. the crankcase and the bottom of the flywheel) and i used silver polish to clean the exhaust leg and the transom leg which worked a treat!

I didn't take the flywheel off and i just used hammerite gold to paint it (the recommend paint, hammered even better), but you have to be very careful not getting paint on the plastic top and the silver parts.

I hope you get your engine looking mint! Remember to always dry parts off which where steam clean with a hairdryer or another hot appliance, as you dont want getting excess water stuck in your engine! If your are going to take the block off, defiantly get in there with the water passages and you will be amazed how much muck comes out!

I hope this goes well for you! Alex

Don't use caustic soda on the alumnium parts - the ally will etch badly and start to disappear if the solution is too strong!
Paraffin would be good, or use a proprietary engine cleaner such as Gunk. At least the oil may have stopped corrosion/ rust that might otherwise have occurred.
Curious where all the oil came from in the first place!

The oil comes from all sorts of places. It should be fine, but just check your gear oil levels once a while and you should be fine. I think oil coming from the top part of the exhaust leg and the exhaust holes are normal.

Thanks, Alex