Saving Old Seagulls

Next installment .... The point of this comes nearer the end.....Not applicable to a closed cooling system like cars & Jeeps, but today I finished cleaning water passages in the cast iron cylinder of my 1969 British Seagull outboard (cylinder head removed). After previously scraping some powdery...

Mine (Forty Plus) had some water flow in a very large barrel, but not as much as hoped for. After being sidetracked for months with other chores, I pulled the cylinder head a couple of days ago and found the water passages about half blocked with soft rust that should be easily cleaned up. I started...

I had posted a few pics of my 1969 Forty Plus way back when I bought it and promised some pics of it at least hanging on the sailboat (a 1972 Gulfcoast 20). Have been sidetracked but hung the motor on the boat's built in motor well today. It looks like the shaft is long enough to keep the prop in th...

I ended up passing on the Mighty Mite motor. I agree it looks like the 500 model and at 1.7 hp isn't quite powerful enough for my possible usage. That and I didn't want to be chasing parts like the missing rope pull.

I usually don't name my boats but had to pick a name for the center console powerboat we bought while stationed in Key West, FL. Was a requirement as the call sign for licensing the VHF radio I installed on the boat. After much deliberation we put "End Decision" on the VHF license applicat...

A little quick research shows it is most likely a Neptune Mighty Mite. There is one other remote possibility of a knock off motor that looks like the Mighty Mite. Still worth a look tomorrow despite the obviously missing rope pull. It appears some of the very early models may not have had covers. Pa...

Looks like a Mighty Mite without its covers and rope pull. Thanks. I had totally forgotten about Mighty Mites. I'll have a look see tomorrow and figure out what it may be. The seller is asking $100 USD. It may or may not be worth that over here. I'll research Mighty Mites and the market for them an...

Looks like it should be, but I can't find any pictures that match it.



Going to look it over Sunday and see what it looks like up close.

Unfortunately due to my stupidity and a wife uninterested in either boats or motors, I have no pics. However, here is a good place to start: http://www.instantboats.com/ These are all flat bottom and easy to build. I can vouch for this fleet, having built a number whose study plans are someplace in...

I totally agree and plan to get it on the boat and on the water before tearing into it further. My barrel is one of those big blue plastic 55 gallon drums. I could affect the water flow just by turning the motor left, right, and center with the best flow with the motor centered. So the barrel defini...

Thanks. I read that and some other posts regarding rpm vs water flow. So I didn't panic after having read about the rpm threshold for the water pump to lift all the way to the power head. I don't plan to add the siphon tube since I won't be at idle speeds very much. And pulling the head will happen ...

Back story: Even though I get a steady stream from the weep hole once rpms get up above about 1000rpm, it was intermittent when first running my "new" motor and I wasn't sure if there was some minor blockage or cavitation in the water barrel interfering with water intake. So, I set out to ...

I run all my seagulls on 10:1 except my amal 416 EDL. The smaller engines hardly smoke but the larger ones smoke running on 10:1. In the past 2 years, running a large variety of seagulls, a mariner and a Suzuki i have only used a 1 gallon bottle of 2 stroke oil. In my opinion that is enough proof t...

Thanks Sandro. Actually that's a 1983 BMW R80 ST in the background. I've always wanted a Guzzi and almost snagged a very nice older one a couple of years ago. After having a couple of Ducatis, that incredible 90 degree v-twin sound hooks you forever. Not to overlook the Italian flair for moto stylin...

Wow! Can't believe it has been since mid-May that I promised to get pictures as I revived my Forty Plus. Apologies, but other things kept interfering. Ordered a few things from John a while back and finally got time this past weekend to rebuild the fuel tap, install the Villiers 25:1 slide needle, r...