Saving Old Seagulls

I have got a Silver Century and wish to use it now & then on our local canal system. Years ago had an old seagull on a frame on stern of a canoe, It picked up weeds on water intake, got hot and seized! (inexperience) Will the problem return wiyh my "new" motor behind a 10ft. dingy? If so, is there a solution?

Some sort of a weed deflector would help (a stiff vertical wire an inch or two in front of the cooling intake slots), but if you run into significant weed, you will find that you frequently need to stop and clear the prop and intake.

I recently took an Avon 310 inflatable powered by a Seagull Forty Plus up the Exeter canal and on the first half of the trip up, with 5 on board (so I couldn't really see the water just ahead of the bow) I had to stop and clear the prop more times than I could count. It was ****ing obvious when we'd picked up weed by the increased vibration, lack of revs and poor progress.

On the way back I only had three onboard so was able to stand up and see the underwater weed to steer round it so only had to clear the prop a couple of times.

You *will* need to keep an eye on the cooling water flow. If you cant manage to make it a habit to check it *every* time you look around, you'll need to rig some sort of overheat alarm! I understand that the Forty range are far more forgiving of overheating than the Centurys which have a reputation for cracking their blocks.

Thankyou Ian, I will certainly try the stiff wire fitting. watching flow should be fine on this dingy. If I remember correctly the old motor was a long way aft on the canoe with about 4ft. of broom handle as a tiller extension, and such a narrow beam that turning around to look felt very scary!

I run a 1957 40+, pushing a Gander river canoe (open canoe with a wine glass stern) I also have found problems with excess weed. Just puchased off the bay a new weedless prop for £5.50 + post (bargin I think?)Just minor machineing to be done so it will fit back against the brass shaft locking ring (advice needed). You do with a older motor take extra care to watch the water flow but havent yet found suficant weed to block the water intakebut as the waterways in my area dont get much maintanance its only a matter of time. I did look at fabing up a type of weed cutter like others have done but dont fancy adding razor sharp items near a rotating prop.
Keep updating and letme know how you get on.

it's a bugger chaps

you MUST keep an eye on the water flow ..
weeds, clag, and all the other stuff in the water, including plasic bags will kill a 'gull

as long as you get to it pretty promptly you'll be OK ...shut down immediately...raise the engine, clear the obstruction, and off you go

if you have water flow you're fine

The harbour that I sail out of is choked with eel grass, large floating masses of it, shuttling back and forth with the tide. Not an idea place for a Seagull! The wire in front of the intake slots helps a good deal. I used a piece of 1/8" dia. stainless steel with heavy stainless washers welded to each end, bent to fit the profile of the gearcase in front of the slots and standing about 15-18 mm ahead of them. The washers fit under the top screw of the gearcase cover and the screw that that helps secure the the water pump housing to the gearcase. I've done this on a Century motor as well as a 40+. Interestingly, the 102 [AC] with the round water intake holes in the sides doesn't seem to have much of a problem in this regard.
Don't know if I should mention it or not, but I didn't know the weeds were a problem last season [pre -Seagull] when I used a '61 Johnson light twin.
If you are in a canoe you should rig a telltale for the water outlet on your motor so you can shut down if its not pushing cooling water through.

Do these weedless props actualy work then, or have i wasted some cash. If i have may not bother getting the machineing done to get it to fit my 57, 40+