Saving Old Seagulls

I'm fairly sure derusting with zinc requires the zinc to be in fairly good electrical contact with the iron. Try packing zinc granules into the block then immersing in the saturated zinc alkali solution. The linked page probably has excess metallic zinc suspended in solution as fine particles. The a...

All of these 'easy' aluminium repair rods are alloys with in excess of 95% Zinc. If the repair is immersed in water expect corrosion problems. If the repair is immersed in salt water and is attached to other metals it will rot away in a matter of months or even weeks due to electrolytic action. The ...

It could also be carburettor flooding due to a slightly leaky needle valve making the mixture too rich.

A 13' rib is probably about 11' waterline length. That gives you a hull speed of about 4.3 knots or about 5 MPH. You cant go faster than the hull speed without planing. To get on the plane the hull must bodily lift in the water and climb over the bow wave which takes lots of power. Also Seagull powe...

Just a suggestion, but what about an aluminium cylinder base gasket? Aluminium sheet is easy to flame anneal to dead soft - just streak with soft soap and heat evenly (or at least keep it moving) from the other side while the streak browns, removing the flame as soon as the streak turns black (best ...

What's needed is a small engine mounted reservoir with either its own float valve or an overflow back to the tank. That would then give gravity feed to the carby (or to the original tank as well) with no risk of excess pressure or overflowing.

It will help if you can leave the engine tilted with the gearbox touching the water but not immersed right up to the propshaft for a few minutes when you first use it, so it can suck air while cooling down to the water temperature but the best improvement is from fitting a decent seal to the shaft. ...

The water is usually cooler than the air temperature so the air inside the gearbox contracts and the gearbox sucks water in when you first immerse it. Pull it out and let it warm back up and the gearbox pressurises. You can reduce the amount of oil loss if you replace the Seagull rubber 'sealing' wa...

If you *TRUELY* want a blue cloud use Castrol R30! :lol: (Caution, bearings should be cleaned and lubed with the new oil when changing either way between conventional oils and Castor oil based lubricants as they are not compatible. Castor oil based lubricants can cause rapid carbon buildup) Otherwis...

All outboards that don't have counter-rotating props suffer from torque steer. Basically the prop blades on the rising side of the prop experience a different amount of resistance to those on the downwards moving side due to the proximity of the water surface and, when moving the asymmetry of the fl...

Unscrew the retaining screw of the metal tab that holds in the wiggly thing at the end of the lead from its boss under the baseplate. You need to get the lead off to test it properly and the wiggly thing just pulls out directly away from the flywheel center once the retainer is removed. Don't remove...

Here is what I had to say about testing Wipac coils . A further note: The primary should have a very low resistance, an ohm or two at most which will look like a direct short on many meters. If you are seeing a low resistance measured across the points with about 1 to 2 ohms difference between point...

If you go for stainless, for heaven's sake keep the pinion end well greased as when stainless is in contact with any conventional steel alloy in salt water, the ordinary steel rapidly gets eaten by electrolysis. In fact, I'd give the mating surfaces a good coat of Duralac then pour some gear oil int...

Don't worry, its only for a 40+. If it was for a Century, the required bucket size might make you less enthusiastic . . . . . Hint: The master (or should that be mistress? :D ) 'plug' must be free from any surface fibres or mould removal may be unduly difficult and damage the surface finish even wit...

*NOTHING* short of hydrofluoric acid or violent percussion will shift a mixture of baked on Poole harbour mud and rust. The local mud is high in organic content including naturally occurring crude oil, fine silt and clay (think Poole potteries and the Wytch Farm oil field) and if you add iron oxide ...