Seagull Motors Serial Numbers - puzzlefree6’s diary

British Seagull Engine Identifier: For instance the 1933 engine numbers seem to indicate just a few motors were made, or is the 3 really an 8.

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ID Your Outboard. Wondering what model If you are new to British Seagull outboard motors, Marston Seagull 102 Series; Serial Numbers: OA, OB, OE, OF, OG.
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With apologies for the poor quality, we have reproduced this list directly

from the original manuals. As this is an important source of information we hope

you find it useful. As an added feature I have retyped a table supplied by Ian

Talmage, based on the original info, I hope it might be easier to read and maybe

have extra info available. When I am satisfied all my gremlins are out of it and

I have added as much as I can, I might delete the first one, but at the moment I

leave both, as the first one came direct from the horses mouth, so to speak,

British Seagull.

Scan right down to the bottom of the page for the latest edition. I think

these tables are about as correct as I can get them, I will remove the originals

at some time, when I m sure.

John SOS

In 1980 Electronic ignitions were installed, engines having the E prefix from

that date.

In the numbers below, for early years, some of the numbers do not appear to

make sense. For instance in 1933 the numbers appear to run backwards, or should

300 be 800.

In 1934 the Super model OF the use of a symbol appears. As I have seen

this motor and it has the number O instead, it looks as if a typist simply

pressed the instead of the 0, by hitting shift at the same time. The use

of the number 0 in all the previous models tends to bear this out. There may

well be other typo s in these numbers, but they are as good as it gets folks.

I have just had a little snippet from Charles Palfreeman in Poole. his

research has added another letter to a few of the motors. August 06.

The FVP and FV motors had the factory option for a while, of a lifting or

pivoting tiller. the engine was suffixed with a T and a bent bracket fixed to

the crankcase, to pivot the tiller on. the for runner to the casting. Well Found

Charles. I have checked and yes, the two I have confirm it.

The Little Forty models.. There is the model LM missing

from the letter codes, fore runner to the SJM I believe. See the Little Forty s

page for more. March 2007, I have had it confirmed that the F did exist, I

have seen one, thanks to Mike Williams for showing it to me.

The use of the letter W in the dating codes.

For a long time I suspected it was not a W but in fact an inverted M, and

yes I have seen a few, but new light has dawned, from Frank Arnold. It seems

they did in the early 1970 s fit a number of 102 s with Wipac ignitions and

they had the letter W added with the year they did not do it for long as it

was not a very useful exercise, after all you could see the darn thing had a

wipac if you looked at it and you did not know what month it was built I have

found several of these now and had a dozen or more reported to me, but recently

I turned up another upside down M so you have to look carefuly.

The Marston Seagulls start here:-

Below the letters and numbers for the Little Forty models. the F was used,

have seen one now and also there was an LM.

Below is the updated list.

My grateful thanks to Ian for the time taken in sorting this out and donating

it to the site for all to read.

Engine - Letter Code - for Month/Year Manufactured

Model Identification - Month Year Defined

From 1963 a letter and number code is used at the end of the engine number to

denote the month and year of manufacture.

The letter indicates the month and the number the year of manufacture, i.e.

A3 January 1963, B3 February 1963, etc., and M3 December 1963 the letter

L is not used in this code sequence.

From 1973 two letters were used in the code to indicate the month, i.e. AA3

January 1973, BB3 February 1973, and MM3 December 1973. Therefore

identification of a model and date of manufacture can be found as follows: WSPCL

1734 BB3.

WSPCL indicates this is a long shaft Silver Century Plus. 1734 is the

production number and BB3 indicates that it was manufactured in February 1973.

1963 to 1972

1973 to 1982

Letter

Month

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

The above table is still not 100 as the letters N were not used every year,

December being M, so one can assume another letter was used somewhere. As it was

not supposed to be L, that only leaves I. However I have never seen one

stamped with I or II, looks too much like a numeral. Need to look through

a few hundred crankcases to figure this one out.

John

Model Identification - Letter Definitions

Some of the letters in the engine lettering code stand for different parts of

the particular models. Below is a list of some of the letter meanings:

Meaning

Amal 400 series Carb

Electronic Ignition Wipac Mk3 or 4

Bing Carb

Long Shaft. This letter code was added after all the engine

number pre 63 and as a suffix to the code letters after 63.

Reconditioned. used as a suffix. There is no record of when some

engines were factory reconditioned, others seem to have the year code after the

Silver models/ Sealed Gearbox 90 grade Oil

used on some motors as a suffix to denote Wipac ignition fitted.

Notably 102 models

Twist Grip fitted at factory. Could be retro-fitted on many

models

As a suffix on the early FV and FVP for

Tiller on bracket.

Engine - Letter Code - for Early Models, including the Marston Seagulls.

Year Manufactured

Engine Lettering Code

Engine No.

Engine Size cc /Name

Series

1931

Standard

1933

387/300.

1934

800/868.

483/0/200

513/0/1001

Hi Duty

511/0/501

Super: Neutral Reverse

1935

483/4/200

513/3/1047

511/3/500

533/0/100

102

534/0/101

High Power: Neutral Reverse

1936

552/0/101

Few models made for Salmon Fisheries

551/0/101

Short Water Jacket - Direct Drive

1937-41

101

Short Water Jacket - Clutch Drive

1942

SNP

1942-46

SDP

1946

HSD

102 Plus

Long Water Jacket - Clutch Drive

Long Water Jacket - Direct Drive

1946-47

102

AHC

Direct Drive

EHC

Clutch Drive

The question Marks mean the numbers either were missing or do not make sense.

For instance the 1933 engine numbers seem to indicate just a few motors were

made, or is the 3 really an 8. Which would make sense. However what happened to

1932. Lumped in with 1933 maybe. No one will tell me, no one seems to know. I

hope shortly to get a definitive list of Early British Seagull Models, from the

first Model A to the first British Seagull 102 s. I will create a special page

just for the Marstons and transfer all the info on them to it. As far as we can

gather, from the motors surviving, not many were indeed made, maybe as few as

1,000. John

The 1949 to 50 s Model F was doubted for a while, but in March 2007 I had

pics of one sent in by Mike Williams. I was right not to doubt the British

Seagull info. John

FORTY SERIES

Engine No

The Little Forty Series

1949-50

100

1325

1950-51

1326

4342

1951-52

4343

FVP

8042

1952-53

11364

1953-54

11365

17828

T As a suffix

On the FV and FVP for Tiller on bracket. As

opposed to fixed tiller on crankcase. Well done Charles Palfreeman for

researching this snippet.

The LM model

This is missing from the tables. Not sure why it

does not appear, but it appears to have run alongside the LS

The later Forty series and some Little Forty

models.

1954-55

17829

27084

1955-56

27085

35003

SJM

SJP

586L

1956-57

35004

38324

The LS was made till the end of 1957

In my little collection I now have acquired SJP 1

from 1955 Awaits restoration.

587

3903

1957-58

38325

38344

3904

9772

1958-59

9773

15997

1959-60

15998

23561

1960-61

23562

32604

1961-62

32605

39823

1962-63

39824

56054

Throughout the years above various codes were used during each year, ie F,

FV, FVP, LM, LS, SJM, SJP. The years codes start with the first motor of

whatever sort, that was made. Obviously the FV and FVP ceased in about 1953, the

LS in. 957. Strangely the LS and the SJP overlapped for 2 years.. but then the

102 production went on till 1977, alongside the Centuries.

CENTURY SERIES

LLS

1200

2410 L

2411

5933

5934

9987

9988

14438 L

14439

22094

22095 L

29368

29369 L

CPC

35548 L

Throughout the years above all the codes were used each year, ie LLS, CP,

CPC. The years codes start with the first motor of whatever sort, that was made.

Somehow the following table became very confused. Ian has given me a template

here in which to hang the numbers, but sadly mine were all muddled, I have

redone this table several times. Hopefully it is now correct. The Model codes AC

AD, TD, TC, etc, all seemed to run together. Whichever motor type was the first

out of the factory in any year, is the code seen as the start number and code

for the year. The numbers just keep on adding up as the years go by, till they

were getting unwieldy, thus the introduction of the date system in 1963.

Recently research by others has revealed all sorts of anomalies that I had

wondered about. Seems British Seagulls made quite a lot of other motors that did

not appear in the official lists. We are slowly getting more info on them, but

of course it is conflicting. John

102 SERIES

Starts with Eng No.

Ends with Eng No.

1945-46

SD11484 L

SDP 12263

SDP12264

AC694

1947-48

AC695

AC4000

1948-49

AD4001

AC8204

AD8205

AD12866

AC12867

AC20340

AHC20341

AD26920

AD26921

AD32585

AC32586

AD37815

AD37816

AC43350 L

AC43351 L

AC49253

AC49254

TD55203

TD55204

TC60415

TC60416

TC65216

TC65217

THC71069 L

THC71070

TD77178 L

TD77179 L

TD81365

TD81366

TD85043

The Model 102 carried on in production till 1977 at least, I have proof that

they were making one off batches into the 1980 s, with electronic ignitions.

when I sort all those numbers, I will add them. EDL was one of the numbers

found

Model

1955-67

Forty

Minus

1967-76

Featherweight

1977-78

Featherweight/Bing Carb

1978-79

GFS

1979-84

EFS

Featherweight/Model 45

1956-67

Plus

1967-79

Plus Mark II

1976-79

GFP

FPC

Plus clutch drive

GFPC

1979-89

EFPC

Plus clutch drive/ Model 55

For a couple of years the G prefix denoted the Bing

Carb, instead of the more normal Villiers, I have heard conflicting reasons for

this, suffice to say they went back to Villiers till they replace it with the

Amal 416, motors had an A prefix then.

Century

1967-73

1957-67

Plus fixed drive

1967-69

1959-67

WPC

The Villiers Carb was used on all the models above.

the same carb on 102 cc and 64cc, no difference. How that works no one has ever

explained, but it does make it easier to swop carbs about. John

1966-69

Silver Century

1969-79

WSC

clutch drive

1979-

ESC

clutch drive/ Model 75

SPC

WSPC

ESPC

Plus clutch drive/ Model 80/

1979-1996

EFNR

Model 110/ Model 90

Current production models as of 1989. Some of

these models carried on till the early 1990 s, the EFNR till the end in 1996.

The Amal 416 carb was used on some WSC and WSPC

models, all ESC, ESPC and EFNR models. john

1946-56

1956-66

fixed drive

Plus - clutch standard

THC

WHC

The 102 used the Amal 2 jet carb exclusively. However, the replacement if it

failed, in later years, was the 416, so some may have been changed. Strangely

enough that carb will run reasonably happily on 10:1, which older, pre

1968, motors should run on. John

Gear Oil

1983 to date

GEF

Featherweight/Bing carb

SAE140

Featherweight/Amal 416

Featherweight/Villiers carb E for Electronic ignition, CD

SEF

Featherweight/sealed box

SAE140. 90 if box sealed

TSEF

Featherweight/Twistgrip/sealed box.

AFPW

Plus - direct drive/Amal 416

EFPW

Plus - direct drive/CD ign.

Plus - clutch drive/CD ign.

SAE 90

SEFPC

Plus - clutch drive/CD ign./sealed box

TSEFPC

Plus - clutch drive/ Twistgrip/CD ign/sealed box

CD ign/clutch

ESCL

ditto

FNR box/CD ign

EFNRL

Curlew

Clutch/CD ign/sealed box

CST

ditto plus Twistgrip

CSTL

ditto

Osprey

CD ign/FNR

OSR

ditto/Roller bearing big end

OLR

ditto/roller bearing big end

TOS

CD ign/ FNR/Twistgrip

TOL

Kingfisher

CD ign/FNR

KSR

CD ign FNR/Roller big end

KLR

TKS

Twistgrip/CD ign/FNR

TKL

Note a L after the lettering part of the sequence

denotes a long shaft model. 7 1987, 8 1988, 9 1989, 0 1990, 1 1991,

etc.

Sealed box British Seagulls can be recognised by an extra screw in the gear

box casing just above the top gearbox cap screw. This screw secures the bearing

assembly.

Featherweight/CD ign

1-2

1984-85

Featherweight/Amal carb/CD ign

1985-89

1989-90

Featherweight/Sealed box/CD ign

1990-

Featherweight/Twistgrip/CD ign/sealed box

1983-84

Plus - direct drive/Amal carb/CD ign.

2-3

1983-88

Plus - direct drive/CD ign

Plus - clutch drive/CD ign

Plus - clutch drive/sealed box/CD ign

Plus - clutch drive/Twistgrip/sealed box/CD ign

1979-90

1979-91

FNR/CD ign/sealed box

1987-90

1990-93

TCS

ditto plus twistgrip

FNR/CD ign sealed box

1990-92

ditto but roller big end

1982-87

170

FNR/CD ign/Sealed box/weak big end.

Approx 7.5

1984-86

ENC

125

Clutch/CD ign/sealed box/weak big end.

HP represent the manufacturers HP model number.

Since British Seagulls are rated in foot pounds the actual horse power rating

may not be entirely accurate to the numbers listed. 33 foot pounds 1 HP

Sealed box British Seagulls can be recognised by an extra screw in the gear box

casing just above the top gearbox cap screw. This screw secures the bearing

assembly. I have spent hours adding to this table, but if you can see one I have

missed, please contact me. Note. The Hp ratings are very approximate. Later

investigations proved they were wildly inaccurate, and the thrust at the prop

became more important and was the figure used to denote models, ie the

Featherweight become the 45, the EFNR the 90. John, SOS Note a L after the

lettering part of the sequence denotes a long shaft model. 7 1987, 8 1988,

Below is a table featuring the Forty and Century models, with hp, approx and

type of gearbox oil. this must be used with caution as there is no guarantee

that your British Seagull has not been altered over the years

Give away for the sealed gearboxes is an extra screw just above the cap

screws, this secures the bevel bearing and seal.

Ignition

1955 to 1967

Mk 1

SAE 140

1967 to 1976

Mk 2

1977 to 1978

1978 to 1979

1979 to

Mk 3

1982 to 1984

EGF

1984 to 1985

1985 to

1989 to 1990

1990 to

1956 to 1967

1967 to 1979

1976 to 1979

1983 to

1983 to 1984

EGFPW

Plus - Clutch drive

1979 to 1989

Forty/55

AFPC

1967 to 1973

1957 to 1967

Plus - Fixed drive

4-4.5

1967 to 1969

1959 to 1967

1966 to 1969

4.5

1969 to 1979

Clutch drive

1978 to

Clutch drive/ Model 75

Plus - Clutch drive/ Model 80

Model 110/90 with Reverse

There has been much argument about power output, these figures are as close

to the claimed truth as I can make them. The real truth is the power heads

produced a lot less, but the gearing gave the thrust equivalent to motors of the

claimed power. See the note about the Trade s Description Act. John

Engine - Approx. Weights

Weight lbs

Weight Kilos

Forty Featherweight/ 45

Forty Plus

Century 100

Century Plus/ Century Sliver Plus

Note: Weight based on dry weight - tank dry, bracket stripped

for carrying. Add approximately 4 pound for long shaft models.

Engine - Boat Type and Size Recommendations

Vessel Type/ Size

Forty Minus/ Forty Featherweight/ 45

This engine is for 6-9 foot dinghies with low transom and in the

category 1-2 hp. An easy motor to handle.

Forty Plus/ 55/ 60/

The ideal engine for 10-14 foot dinghies, rowing boats and as

stand by power for smaller sail boats. Can be seen on larger craft too, up to

18ft.

Century/ Century Plus/ 75/ Curlew/

As a second motor for a motorboat or on 14 to 19 foot heavy

dinghies.

Century Silver/ 90/ Osprey

Heavy work boats 14 to 19 feet, as an auxiliary for boats of 2

to 3 tons, full bodied boats, fishing boats, to 24 feet and as an auxiliary for

boats 3 to five tons. This tonnage may be Thames, certainly not displacement.

Yachts up to about 24ft, standby on motorboats of similar size.

Have seen used on 30 ft boats.

Engine - Fuel Mixture Ratios

Ratio

1 gal. unleaded

2 gal. unleaded

5 gal. unleaded

1931 to 1978

10:1

12.8 oz. oil 3/4 pint

25.6 oz. oil 1 1/2 pints

64 oz. oil 3 3/4 pints

1978 on plus older converted models

25:1

5.12 oz. oil 1/3rd pint

10.24 oz. oil 2/3rd pint

25.6 oz. oil 1 2.3 pint

Roller bearing models ONLY 25:1 recommended

This model left the factory, with a 50:1 oil mix. It

was lethal. Use 25:1 if yours has survived.

In the very early years there were motors running on 8:1, 10:1 and even 16:1,

as has been found on tank decals of these old motors. These are the oddballs

though, the vast majority of the 3 million motors made ran on 10:1 mix.

The following should be considered when determining the right fuel mixture

ratio for your engine: information reproduced from a 1991 service manual No.

Grade of Oil to be used. Only use two stroke oil for outboards. It must be

for outboards, not lawn mowers or chainsaw, motor bikes or snow cats. Use TCW 2

or 3 grade. This is important as the oil is designed to lubricate at the low

temperatures that British Seagull run at..

25:1 PETROL/OIL RATIO

All motors manufactured from January 1978 are designed to operate on a 25:1

petrol gas /oil ratio.

Motors manufactured from 1968 to January 1978 can satisfactorily use this

ratio, providing the following modifications can be made. Prior to 1968 a

shorter bearing was used in the crankcase and it is unsuitable for too lean an

oil mix. See FAQ page. The Amal 2 jet needs the main jet changing to a No. 40.

The Villiers needs a replacement needle, No.2, sadly these are no longer

generally available..

August 06, I have 25:1 needles in stock again.. they have now no

number on them at all.

See the FAQ page for other ways of reducing the oil mix on villiers carbs.

John Williams,

SOS.

Free British Seagull engine identification information. All the engine numbers explained.