Have a 96 Johnson 40 that is oil injected. On the recommendation from someone (IDO perhaps) I also mix some oil in with the gas. Mechanic told me plugs were pretty fouled and it does seem to smoke an awful lot. Is it a good fail-safe to continue adding oil to the fuel or should I trust that the oil injection system will do its job?
I can’t speak to your outboard and trusting the oil injection, but I will say that with my Optimax it’s night and day different how minimal the fumes are and how long plugs last once I switched to running a good synthetic injector oil (I run AMSOIL).
Lol, why would you ever add oil to an oil injected engine, makes no sense.
Lol, why would you ever add oil to an oil injected engine, makes no sense.
Like he said, it’s a fail safe just incase the inject fails.
Oil injection can be trusted. The problem. With adding extra is at times you are running way to heavy. How often are you fouling plugs? I see no need for it unless it’s running really lean with out and then something is wrong qnd needs to be fixed. Are you mixing like a 100:1
Lol, why would you ever add oil to an oil injected engine, makes no sense.
I’m not a super mechanical person, but I believe there were some issues in the past with the diaphragm in these injection systems failing. I probably listened to an opinion without truly thinking about it. I have to look at the manual, but would there typically be some alarm/sensor to warn that oil pressure was low?
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>onestout wrote:</div>
Lol, why would you ever add oil to an oil injected engine, makes no sense.Like he said, it’s a fail safe just incase the inject fails.
Oil injection can be trusted. The problem. With adding extra is at times you are running way to heavy. How often are you fouling plugs? I see no need for it unless it’s running really lean with out and then something is wrong qnd needs to be fixed. Are you mixing like a 100:1
I believe I mixed around 100:1. However, I’m ashamed to say I don’t use it enough to really have a handle on how often the plugs would get fouled. All I know is the mechanic told me there was a lot of crud on the plugs. Gotta pick it up today before heading north so I’m going to talk to him more about it. Had to have an impeller put in last minute. That sucker was toast.
I think I’ll run it without any added oil this trip and see how it performs. Might be my last outing with it if I can find the right “new” boat.
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That is alot of oil coming down the exhaust that is un burned. I’m going to guess you are mixing it heavy and basically doubling your needed oil rate.
Safe to say she is definitely lubed up.
Outboards with oil injection were introduced in the mid ’80s. They originally had some issues but not as many as the old wise tales claim. By the mid ’90s the manufacturers had found and fixed any remaining issues.
If you have any doubts put apiece of tape on your oil reservoir and monitor the consumption. 5 gal of gas should consume between 6 (100:1 mix) and 12 (50:1 mix) oz. of oil.
If you are really concerned put about 6 oz in your gas while you monitor the reservoir level.
I was just at an old Evinrude guru’s shop with my buddy with his old injected Evi 50 horse. He said those injection systems WILL fail and to remove it. It was the kind they have the large external tank on the decks next to the gas tank. Evinrude even pins a plug to the line. He showed us how to remove it and the correct disconnections. There were other reasons premix worked better as well. I would say you should keep mixing and turn off the injection.
^^ What Mike said.
Instead of adding a little oil to the gas, add all the oil to the gas and get rid of the injection.
I don’t know anything about that motor, but that seems the safest to me.
Gee can’t tell why you would be confused on what to do. 
I would talk to your mechanic when you pick it up. Or send a message to iowaboy.
You will get a 50 50 from mechanics on weather to remove and mix gas or leave it.
It’s designed to dispurse oil responding to throttle. It’s not always constantly burning 50:1 or 40:1.
Just ask Iowa boy. He will let you know.
The last guy who asked about removing oil injection, Iowa boy said absolutely not if I’m not mistaken
Wish your motor was bigger, I would offer to remove your vro, buy and install a new fuel pump to replace and take your old one for my motor. Wish I hadn’t removed mine. PIA mixing gas, hate it with a passion.
I also agree on dumping the oil injection system and just mixing the gas and oil, that is what we did on our old merc, the injection system became unreliable.
Didnt VRO’s have a reputation for issues with the oil injection?
Is it a good fail-safe to continue adding oil to the fuel or should I trust that the oil injection system will do its job?
No, it’s not a good failsafe. Yes, you should trust your oil injection system to do its job.
Look at it this way. The damn outboard is a quarter century old and it’s made it THIS far with VRO. Why would you mess with 25 years of reliable operation?
VRO systems and oil injection in general is misunderstood by many armchair mechanics and it’s blamed for everything that ever happened to an engine. The VRO has multiple failsafes that make “running without oil” highly, highly unlikely.
If you want to really understand the VRO system and why failures are very rare, read this:
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html
What we never hear about is how many guys who ripped out an “unreliable” VRO system then later forgot to add oil to their gas and toasted their own engine. I had VRO engines from both gens and both worked perfectly, but if anything had a tendency to over oil.
A good synthetic oil is a VROs best friend. Some saltwater guys that had twin and even triple VRO engines back in the day recommended Pennzoil Premium Plus as THE low-smoke oil. I tried 1 jug of it and have never bought any other oil since then for ANY 2 stroke outboard, OI or premix.
Wish your motor was bigger, I would offer to remove your vro, buy and install a new fuel pump to replace and take your old one for my motor. Wish I hadn’t removed mine. PIA mixing gas, hate it with a passion.
It’s the easiest thing ever to do. Add a few gallons and then add what ever ounces of oil you mix at are. Drive to the launch and you are good. It’s not like you have to actually sit and shake a heavy ass can for 20 minutes. Let the ride to the lake do it for you. Oil jugs have measurements on them just add what’s needed per how ever many gallons. Simply takes maybe 1 extra minute
Didn’t say it wasn’t easy, just said it’s a PIA.
Johnson and evenrude vro are notorious for the injection failing.vro stands for vary rarely oiled!!
I had three of those engines 1995 and newer. Never had any trouble with the oil injection. Read alot about them on both sides but most creditable in my estimation were to leave it alone.
A outboard mechanic I trusted told me 30 years ago that the oil injection systems were extremely reliable. He said they got a bad rep from lazy marine techs that blamed them for anything they couldn’t explain.
Discussed with the mechanic before heading north last weekend. He said it was definitely running too rich. So I ran non-oxy, 93 octane through the motor all weekend with no oil added. Started the best it ever has and smoked about 10% of what it used to.
Should be running real good for the next owner, assuming I can find a newer, larger boat!
I’ve run 4 stroke for over 20 years. My last VRO was on a duck boat. Mechanic recommended adding oil in cold weather. Duck hunting with 10 degree morning they said would stiffen oil to the point of not flowing at all. Not sure if that was a vacuum system as compared to an injection system. Sure the oil and systems have improved since then. I removed mine for piece of mind. Prior had mixed gas-oil all my life. Mechanics opinions vary like anyones. Still get mixed opinions on gas additives.
how do low oil alarms work? Are they in the reservoir or is the sensor in the oil injectors?
Are they in the reservoir or is the sensor in the oil injectors?
The Merc I used to have was in the tank. I assume the rest are similar.
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