G'day,
This is my first post here but some of you may know me from other forums.
I am very interested to hear from anyone who has experienced problems with the VRO (oil injection) units on Johnson or Evinrude outboards.
Cheers,
Iain
Welcome aboard Iain. I have found this site & it's members to be very helpful.
With your question, do a search on this site as there have been several ask the same thing. Also you can check out this US site for some info.
www.outboardrepairs.com
As far as my own research on this topic, I have found there are those that think the VRO is OK, and those that think it stinks.
It's a hard call, good luck.
Cheers,
Mick
Iain,
I had a 60 hp johnson with VRO, and as soon as i bought it i had it discontected. The Mechanic said that they were too unreliable and could not be trusted, in fact this was a statement made by OMC back then. So now I pre-mix my fuel and Oil and that way I always know whats going through there.
Cheers
Sharky
I used to fish with a bloke who had a VRO 40Hp Evinrude. Everytime he started it cold it alarmed on low oil flow. The other mate had a VRO series 2 V4 90Hp Evinrude and had a couple of diaphram failures before the engine went bang! It used to smoke like crazy. Another bloke I work with had a 70 Hp Johnson which seized due to lack of oil from the VRO.
There not my favourite oil injection.
Well to throw a coin in the works, I've got a 115 Johnson with oil injection. I bought it second hand about 6 months ago, and I haven't had any problems with it. It has obviously been OK since it was built back in 98'. It hasn't posed any problems yet.
It smokes no more than any other two stroke that I have seen, and runs well. I'm happy with it, I would have prefferred a 4 stroke, only for the quietness and the fuel economy, but for the savings I got with the deal for this boat, I can handle the downfalls.
Corry
I've got a vro evinrude 70 and had the low oil light come on at various times. Had it checked out at service and tune up( you know, change plugs, smear a bit of grease around, $120 Thanks! Now it stops when put in gear and try to run it at low revs, why F#!%n bother! anyone know a good mechanic in Bundaberg?) apparently nothing wrong with the vro system any way.
Anyone know what ratio to mix oil and fuel after I've disconnected the oil pump?
Thanks
The vro pump is a bit like the water pump, it is a part that wears although it should be replaced on an infrequent basis, the new pumps have a good reputation, it's the older ones that got the bad rep, deserved or not, if anyone is still running the old type, it's time for a change to the new 10year old style or if the new style of pump is 7 or so years old it might be time for the replacemant part, cheap insurance.nq
no experience with them myself - but i thought it was problems with its oil injection systems (VRO or otherwise) that sent OMC to the wall???
Hi Guys
Just as another Spanner in the works up until last year we had an 87' model 175hp Johnson (from new) with VRO and never had a problem with it at all. We knew that some engines did have problems but we wouldn't disconnect the system because we didn't want 200L of fuel going stale all of the time and also because we do alot of trolling and didn't want the plugs fouling. It just comes down to a personal choice, but I think that we did pretty well with 16 years out of it without a problem.
Scott
Mate my VRO failed me a couple of months ago and the outbaord was pissing out so much smoke it wasnt funny and was very embarrassing, $600 later with a full service, carby cleanout, disable the vro and mix my own fuel now shes running 1000000 times betterOriginally Posted by Iain
Seafarer Viking 5.5
I had a 200hp evinrude for years. It was a VRO model. The only trouble I had was the seals in the thing would leak and you would get oil filling up the fuel line if you left it sit for too long. That would make it hard to start and it would smoke badly for the first couple of minuites until it cleared out. As long as I kicked it over once a fortnight it was fine. I just put up with a couple of minutes of heavy smoke, although I used to get some funny looks at the ramp.It was better than having to mix my own.
Mark
Iain
I have only a vague idea of how VRO works BUT I have only found one dealer in Brisbane who recommends that the VRO on late model motors be removed. There was a problem with the early VROs, but I think that during the early 1990's the system was improved and the reliability in the later model motors was acceptable.
The consensus among the other dealers I spoke to is that if VRO was so bad why did OMC continue to put it on their motors for approx 10 years after the introduction of VRO 2 (and almost 20 years after the originaly VRO). The dealers didn't know why you would want to remove the VRO.
If you do decide not to run with the VRO then it can simply be disconnected - I don't think that there is any need to replace the fuel pump. If it is disconnected, then it can be reinstated later at minimal cost if you change your mind. There is some talk about the oil diaphragm failing if it is not exposed to oil, but frankly I don't agreed with that line.
For more info try the www.iboats.com site - look up boating forums, Johnson / Evinrude problems - there is a search - type VRO pre mix and you will get more information than you need.
Or just try
http://www.iboats.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ul...=027163#000001
There's a lot of talk about VRO, but in general not much research.
Sorry to go on so much - Best of luck
Which way
Thanks everyone for the responses. Really appreciated.
My VRO on my 2001 Johnno has failed and my hip pocket is $4952.65 lighter as a result.
There are vastly differing opinions on VRO, some blokes swear by them and others reckon they are crap. There is no doubt the early VRO's were duds, the question is whether the newer ones are any better?
I have spoken with 4 reputable outboard repairers and 3 of them reckon the VRO remains a fundamentally flawed system (hence the 15 and counting design changes to try and get them right). The 4th repairer was a Johnson dealer who is unlikely to s*itbag their own product. I have also scoured internet search engines and chat boards and found what I believe is enough anecdotal evidence to suggest these things are a dog.
Anyone with a Johnson VRO engine should consider changing to premix. VRO (soneone suggested this stands for Very Rarely Operates) is a ticking timebomb. I was fortunate to have my engine blow-up in a safe location. 15 minutes later and I would have been trolling headlands and lives would have been at risk. The 2 minute time investment to add oil when fuelling is a very small price to pay compared with 5 large which is what a full engine rebuild will cost you.
If I had the resources I'd like to do some more research on this topic as manufacturers dumping flawed products into the market should be held to account.
BE WARNED
I am a novice in many areas. I am a novice to this forum and I apologise if I am doing something I should not by posting my query here.
I am a novice to the boating game. I recently bought a Johnson 120 VRO outboard on a Haines Hunter hull, off a guy who passed away due to cancer. I was not able to talk to him about all the details of owning a boat or running and maintenance.
When I had it serviced the service guy told me to mix the fuel 50:1 which I have been doing. I thought however that that was the purpose of the VRO and have since received contradictory reports. I understand that there is a fair amount of contraversy about VRO's and whether they should be disconnected or not.
My question is:
If I don't disconnect the VRO and I premix the fuel will it cause any great difficulties? I presume that it may clogg up the spark plugs?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Gary S
Simple really, you can keep paying a mechanic to fix all the parts that make up the VRO system or disconnect it. Here' a "how to disconnect" video.
I think a wise man once said: "Keep it simple stupid!"
Happy Boating!
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