Why is there no way that I’ve found to put some kind of sensor on a 2stroke oil reserve? Not enough pressure? You’d think any line that requires a ball would be able to gauge, which my oil line has.
Is there anyway to accomplish this? After the many VRO posts I’m simply not willing to premix on my ’94 120, would rather replace the whole pump every few years for peace of mind if that’s what it takes.
I appreciate the fact you want to keep an eye on that motor,and it is easier if there is a gauge to look at,however,most gauges get ignored after a while and when you are not looking,thats when it will show a problem and on outboards by that time,its too late.
you are correct in stating the pressure is too low,in fact at idle if memory serves me,its in ounces of psi and its not a lot higher at the upper end of the scale,this would dictate a very sensitive gauge and it would not register correctly in rough conditions as it would be bouncing all over the place.
keep an eye on the reservoir,if it is getting lower,the VRO is working,thats about it other than the alarm that will warn you when the level is getting low.
you have to trust that system,its a good one,use good oil,make sure it never gets water in it and keep your filling equipment CLEAN.
as I have said before,pull the hood a couple of times a year to check the numerous clamps that are used on that system,look the hoses over for cracking or getting soft,replace as needed,and once in a while,have a dealer that has the proper tools check that system over.
What kind of sensor are you referring to? I believe your outboard is post 1986 and therefore is the VRO2 (Gen 2 of the VRO) and it has a low flow/no flow alarm already. There is a sensor that matches pump pulses with engine RPMs and if the two go out of synch an alarm sounds.
There’s no reason to replace a working VRO pump. The vast, vast, vast majority of engine issues blamed on “VRO failures” are actually armchair mechanics pretending to know what happened to a system they don’t understand and in many cases have never seen.
The VRO is no different than any other oil injection system. If something is broke, fix it. Keep it clean and use quality oil.
Remember, we never hear from the tail-between-legs owners out there who ripped out their “unreliable” VRO systems and then forgot to mix the fuel and blew up their engines to hell. I bet there are as many of those guys out there as there are cases of actual VRO-failure engine damage.
Grouse
Interesting, I’ll have to do more research.
I saw mercury had some alarms for such in their later motors but couldn’t reference anything for John/Evin.
Thought maybe a guy could hope for some kind of gauge or other to aid in awareness of motor health. I’ll be replacing some others so was thinking if there were options out there this would be the time.
Please make sure to let us know what you find. I have a 2002 150 Johnson that I’m concerned about after hearing these posts. Mine has run great for well over 1000 miles but I worry. I’ll carry an extra gallon of oil just in case I have to mix.
I’ve been known travel upwards of 100 miles a day on superior. Not the place for something like that to happen.
FYI. There are plenty of pressure reading devices that are more than capable of reading well below 1 psi very accurately. The only issue would be the range. Most devices including gauges read best between 25-75% of their scale. If the pressure range is below 5-10%, your acccuracy is seriously comprised and you could be susceptible to an altogether false reading.
Please make sure to let us know what you find. I have a 2002 150 Johnson that I’m concerned about after hearing these posts. Mine has run great for well over 1000 miles but I worry. I’ll carry an extra gallon of oil just in case I have to mix.
From what I understand if the VRO goes 99& of the time it goes rich not lean….That’s what mine did…..
nhamm…..The whole pump for my VRO2 50 was $495 + labor….Can you afford that every few years?…..
The only reason I bypassed mine was money was tight at the time…..otherwise I would have replaced it…
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html
Perhaps this was posted before. Best read on the VRO system I’ve found to date.
After this read I feel a gauge is overkill. Would be nice still, but kind of getting nowhere in terms of practicality and costs searching online.
From what I understand if the VRO goes 99& of the time it goes rich not lean….That’s what mine did…..
nhamm…..The whole pump for my VRO2 50 was $495 + labor….Can you afford that every few years?…..
The only reason I bypassed mine was money was tight at the time…..otherwise I would have replaced it…
Who told you that it needed to be replaced? Why couldn’t it be repaired? Did you have a qualified technician actually look at it?
There is so much internet BS and armchair Generic Mechanic BS out there when it comes to the VRO system. Most VRO system problems when they really do occur are repairable and do not require the replacement of the whole unit. In a limited number of instances, it may be more economical to replace the unit because of labor costs, but this would depend on what exactly is wrong. I would never accept a diagnosis of “VRO needs replacing” from anyone who wasn’t a trained and certified OMC technician.
I have no idea why a VRO would run rich 99% of the time if there’s a problem. I would think it would depend on the nature of the problem.
My last VRO2 system was on a Johnson Silver Star 150 and it ran perfectly. The only “problem” I ever had with it was that I needed 2 stroke oil once and the resort only had some Genera2000 oil on the shelf so that’s what I bought. All of a sudden about an hour later my engine is blowing out blue smoke like crazy and I thought I’d lost the rings on one cylinder or something. Then I remembered the “new” oil I’d added, so I went back to the dock, went to Walmart, and got a little pump and pumped all that Genera2000 oil out and replaced it with my usual Penzoil synth. Problem solved instantly.
The VRO system is obviously calibrated for quality OMC or equivalent oil. Running generic cat’s P1ss was very, very bad.
Grouse
The whole thing was looked at by Brandon at Boaters World in Little Falls as that was nearest place open on a holiday weekend when I went to look at it. Brandon I thought did an excellent job overall with what I had him do with inspection, as well as some other work he performed after. Noticed the rear dog clutch was slipping, and a broken rod of some sort on engine which fixed the stalling problem I had when test driving. The engine was rebuilt or had new power pack of some sort 5-6years ago per customer and had new VRO, new water, list goes on of new stuff put on at that time(no receipts so had checked). He recommended premixing for he’s seen many of them fail.
I feel it’s one of those topics where we HERE can have a good candid conversation about and truth comes out and we know for the most part people involved will take care of business. But also feel if you’re in the business and you see the many variables involved with this, and all the stuff not taken care of by the majority of weekend warriors it may be a safer route to say cut er off and premix.
This post was one of those cheap insurance things. If I can drop a hundred or so, get a gauge on the dash that MAY help down the road, its worth it to me. Found an article on the new System Check gauges with alarm that can be added to any VRO engine that would be sweet, but for $300 plus it’s hard to swallow that one.
http://continuouswave.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/015190.html
Mudshark, I didn’t know that it was that much money, thanks for the info and definitely changes a guys mind on replacement.
Hard to think of few years down the road with the boat being brand new to me still, but I dont plan on having it forever, and with all the comments here I’m confident going forward until I upgrade again. There was some preventive stuff Sheldon helped me with as well some stuff from that article I’ll be keeping up on.
I plan on giving that Pennzoil a try Grouse, I believe I saw it at a Home Depot now. Seems they stopped carrying the auto Mobil synthetic in 5s, but got a marine oil for me so that’s good trade off.
Who told you that it needed to be replaced? Why couldn’t it be repaired? Did you have a qualified technician actually look at it?
The fellow who told me this was a 25yr certified OMC trained tech.
I trust his word….
I have no idea why a VRO would run rich 99% of the time if there’s a problem. I would think it would depend on the nature of the problem.
I only meant when the oil side of the pump goes bad it runs rich on oil…..not fuel….it’s the nature of the beast….
The VRO pump has 3 sections,Air,Fuel and oil…. which only 2 may be rebuilt…
This too was explained by the tech.
I was just passing on what I was told……
This post was one of those cheap insurance things. If I can drop a hundred or so, get a gauge on the dash that MAY help down the road, its worth it to me. Found an article on the new System Check gauges with alarm that can be added to any VRO engine that would be sweet, but for $300 plus it’s hard to swallow that one.
This is good news for me considering the earlier article you posted. I should have the alarm that monitors the pressure.
In one of those articles it shows way of testing that alarm. Hopefully I’ll find some time tonight to do so. Had something to do with grounding the tan wire off the harness which will sound er off. Again, just peace of mind.
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