Technical Tips for
British Seagull Owners
Practical, field-proven guidance to keep your Seagull starting easily and running reliably year after year.
Fuel and Storage
All British Seagull outboard engines should run on unleaded petrol. Did you know that unleaded petrol does not store for as long as standard leaded petrol - so keep it fresh.
As soon as you mix Two Stroke Oil with the petrol it shortens its useful life.
These factors together with natural evaporation of the petrol from an oil mixture, are the most common problems in re-starting your engine after the winter or a prolonged period of non-running.
Fuel tanks and, particularly, carburettor bowls are left with an oily sludge in their base - as soon as you start your engine, even with fresh fuel, the sludge moves and blocks the carburettor or oils up the plug.
Remember to drain the fuel completely prior to the winter (or period of non-running) and use fresh fuel mixture in the spring.
“Fresh fuel first. It prevents most starting problems.” Pull Quote · Fuel Tip
What drowns a Seagull?
Nearly every day someone telephones us saying that they have found an old Seagull - how do I get it going?
Apart from fresh fuel (as above), it is the corrosion caused by storing the engine somewhere warm, after use in salt-water, that does the damage. Usually cleaning the magneto and coil contacts and cleaning and re-gapping the spark plug and contact set is sufficient to regain the spark.
The second most common cause of bad starting is simply exhaust back pressure, caused by having the engine too deeply in the water, so that the exhaust gases are unable to escape. The correct depth of the propeller is with the exhaust outlet about an inch or two (25-50mm) below the surface of the water... deeper immersion will affect both starting and performance.
“Keep the exhaust outlet just below the surface.” Pull Quote · Starting Tip
Two Stroke Outboard Engines
You can run your British Seagull two-stroke engine for as long as it lives. Is the headline in a recent boating magazine "Two-stroke ban begins" a bit misleading?
On the 1 January 2007 it became illegal to manufacture new two-stroke outboard engines, but it did not become illegal to use existing two-stroke outboard engines. It is still possible to use them and repair them until the end of their natural life. In some cases this will be longer than others.
Can we make a British Seagull outboard engine the longest running two-stroke outboard in the world?
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