Saving Old Seagulls

Hello All,

I have a running problem on a 40+ that is puzzling me.

Sometimes after a period of normal operation the engine begins to sound as if it is struggling and revs drop significantly - sometimes stabilising at a lower speed, sometimes continuing to head downwards as if the motor is to stop ...

Maybe I'll try the coathanger wire suggestion. In a trip of about 4 miles yesterday I must have had to stop the engine 10 times to clear large leaves stuck to the water inlet holes - stopping the flow of cooling water. The Thames at the moment is simply full of them.

But at least I've established ...

Hello all,

It seems that the Seagull cooling system is vulnerable to blockage by particales large enough to foul the pump impellor or block internal waterpassages.

I think I'm having problems in this respect with the large number of leaves in the inland waterway where I use my boat; frequent ...

Since contributing to the above discussion, I've noticed that someone - perhaps a follower of this thread - has created a British-Seagull group on Youtube (see: http://youtube.com/group/britishseagull). There are a few Seagull related movies on there at present, but it would be good to see some more ...

The "death rattle" was the sound of the anchor chain slipping unexpectedly over the edge of the boat, bringing us to a rather inelegant stop. Just bad seamanship, I'm afraid!

Seagull-related movies seem to be an underepresented genre on YouTube, and on the internet generally. I can't imagine why ...

Another Seagull film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZnKi0z8sMg

If I post much more on this topic it's going to start to resemble a Seagull-cooling blog.

But I'll just mention that I took the '55 engine - the one with good water flow, but overheating - out on the water again after soaking its insides in kettle descaler for a few days... and lo-and-behold it ...

Thanks for all the helpful suggestions.

Just to clarify, the engine block is hot under running conditions - not after the engine is stopped.

Since my last post, I've had a chance to try my other new 40-Plus (1963) - and noticed that in comparison the block is cooler, and the water from the outlet ...

Having sorted out the fuel system of my 1955 40-plus (referred to in a recent post) and got it starting well on a 10:1 fuel mix, I now seem to have another problem.

When idling in a tank, and running gently in my dinghy, all seem fine and the motor runs smoothly (in a noisy, smoky sort of a way ...

Hello,

I'm a new Seagull owner, with a pair of 40+ engines (1955 and 1963). After various technical hiccups I've now got both running smoothly and took one out onto the Thames in my 13' dinghy for a decent trip at the weekend.

After something like 2 hours at half throttle it seemed like I'd used ...

Just to say that after another check of the carb, and fuel mix the Seagull started on first pull yesterday, and I took my 13' dinghy on a trip on the tidal Thames - for much of the time against a pretty ferocious outgoing tide. They certainly do have lots of thrust, as is often remarked.

There were ...

Thanks for the advice.

I gave the fuel system a bit of a service as a result - finding and removing lots of muck in the tank, pipes and filters in the process.

On reaching the (Villiers) carb, I found the needle - a number 3 - screwed way down. So I brought it back up to the top of the slide as ...

Hello,

I'm a new Seagull owner, and tested my Seagull (1955 40plus) for the first time last weekend.

Not being quite sure what oil:fuel ratio to use, I started with a 1:10 ratio, thinking this would be safest, and I could try more 1:20 later if this proved appropriate.

What I have found is that ...