Saving Old Seagulls

Hello All.
An old Seagull has recently fallen into my hands. As the equipment officer for my local diving club I am used to huge complicated V6 two stroke outboards, complete with oil injection, power trim and tilt, and horribly complicated wiring which is strongly reminiscent of the aftermath of an explosion in a spaghetti factory.
How wondefully simple this old Seagull is, with about four bits of wire and (what looks like) a set of everlasting points and a Champion number 7 plug (rather than an NGK NY26 EV). This engine has not run for at least 25 years. It turned over, no spark. Removed flywheel, cleaned points and a spray of WD, fresh petrol, didn't even clean out the carb and it started second pull.
The big question is, what is it?? serial number is ACR 98L. I've tried my best with your ID section, but it seems about as simple as the V6 wiring. Getting the Seagull to start was easy, accurate ID, however, is completely beyond my ken.
The best I can come up with is 1946 to 56, 102, forward and neutral, Long shaft, reconditioned . Can any of you good people enlighten me further?

Thanks in anticipation,

Andy

Hmm! AC...L denotes 46/47 long shaft as you discovered. Suspect this could be another mystery for Charlesp. Or the other other Charles who has alternative ideas about just about everything...
Steve

Hi.

I'm confident that it's a 1946 AC with a long shaft that's been reconditioned. The R in the wrong place merely reflects the factory's insistence that the code letters were correct. You'll probably find - if you look carefully at the crankcase - it'll probably bear witness to the original numbers being punched flat and then replaced. They did this at the factory for a while - and then they rubbed a paper towel with black paint over the characters to make them stand out.

At any rate, it's a scarce - and nice - motor. By 1946 the long water jacket block was established, the 102 design generally was mature, and the thing should run for years!

I'm interested to know what sort of bracket it has.

Good luck with the motor

The other Charles (now how on Earth could the other other Charles disagree with that?) Bless him...

Thanks for the helpful replies chaps. Charles, the bracket is aluminium with a swinging "prop" to hold the engine in the lifted position. However the bracket is broken and needs welding. I suspect this may be why the engine was laid up in the first place.

This evening I have had the engine running in a tank for half an hour or so. A few points have come to light, now it has had a good run.

At tick over, cooling water is not coming from the tell tale, it does at higher engine speeds. When no water is coming out of it, exhaust fumes do. I am hoping some of the cooling water is supposed to exit through the exhaust and all this is normal, and that I don't have a cracked pot !! Compression seems much improved now it has run for a while. I suspect I don't have a cracked pot!!

Oil is leaking from the top main bearing on to the outside of the crank case, not a vast amount, I'm not worried about it, but is this common?

The lower drive unit has a filler plug and I can't see any greasers on the top bearing. I assume after reading the piece on filling these that I need to fill up completely with 140 oil. Do I need to worry about top bearing lubrication?

My plan is to evaluate the engine on a boat, then I will overhaul it over winter.

Were these engines designed as low geared sloggers for heavy boats or high geared ones for light boats?

What is the spares situation for these models?

Any help with any of the above will again be much appreciated, as I know nothing of these engines apart fron what common senes tells me.

Many thanks,

Andy