Why is vro bad

Hello I want to know why vro is bad please keep it to first hand experiences also no stories about burning up one piston. I am putting it back on my 70 and see a lot of people don't like it. Before i spend the money i would like some good opinions thank you. I also

VRO is fine and my guess is that if you took the lifespan of all VRO engines versus those without, there are probably more cases of death by carbon than death by failed VRO (by nature a VRO helps reduce carbon issues as it will give less oil when the engine doesn't need it).

Now they did have different versions of VRO, that is something to look at - I'm sure the first run was not the best and could be updated with something much more reliable.

With that said - it's a failure point. If the VRO goes south at 200 hours in one of the bad ways they can fail (such that it doesn't pump enough oil and doesn't generate an alarm) you are going to blow the engine at 200 hours, which would never happen due to lubrication in a pre-mixed setup. I'm not a pro mechanic yet have personally owned examples of both a VRO that doesn't pump enough (had twins and figured it out based on oil consumption) as well as examples of a VRO that was just pouring oil into an engine and killed it due to carbon.

Myself personally, I'd rather mix oil than deal with the tank, oil lines, and added parts on the engine. If I have death by carbon at 500 hours instead of wearing it out after 1000 then so be it. If I got a really mint engine with a new VRO on it I might just run it that way, but the first question that arises I'd go to the old school fuel pump - less clutter and simpler to judge, also much cheaper to replace (ie like 50 bucks for a whole new fuel pump and 300 for a VRO, most VRO's are not even repairable).

Jon

Thank you I am getting the latest kit to update the vro to the oms pump and run synthetic oil.

You will be fine with the OMS pump. The newer pump mixes at about 60:1 at WOT and close to 100:1 at idle.

flyingscott said:

Thank you I am getting the latest kit to update the vro to the oms pump and run synthetic oil.

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Myself and friends have grown really found of Penzoil XLF. It's a synthetic blend, about $20 at Walmart, and runs really well in our DFI's. Somebody on some board said it was very similar to the Merc DFI when analyzed, don't know if that's true but my Optimax's have 600 hours or something just on that stuff, it's half the $$ of Mercury DFI oil, and no issues with plug fouling or longevity I can detect.

Since I stock the stuff at home I then just run it in whatever else I own, I go through like 20+ gallons in a season between my boats and it seems to be a good compromise for the $$.

Jon

Thank you i use pennzoil full synthetic

Thank you everybody who replied. I really thought I would hear a lot of horror stories from the the owners of vro equipped motors. I wonder why so many bad things are said about it.

The VRO pump itself is a very good unit.--------Problems arise because people think it is " automatic " and fail to maintain / test the system on occasion.--------------Known examples are of water leaking into the tank and the VRO is then quite happy to inject water .-----That results in the motor coming to a " dynamic halt " every time.

My '85 VRO 70 ran great right up until the oil line under #3 carb crumbled and fell apart at speed. In one of those things a fella thanks his lucky stars for I just happened to be looking back at the wake dialing in a new prop when it failed, so no damage to the engine occurred. But it could easily have been otherwise. The VRO pump(s) themselves have worked fine on both of the motors I have that are VRO equipped and only 1 actually had the oil-line fail because I now replace those lines when they get inflexible. But I have noticed that both these engines have more cylinder scoring than my non-VRO powerheads, but not enough to worry about. And at 3000+ hours each that is fairly indicative.

I have seen a failed VRO pump/motor, but it was the older style that was subject to an early recall way back in 1987 or '88 I think?

I found this VRO article useful, posting in case you do too.
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

Very useful. Thanks for posting it

vandenburgh said:

I found this VRO article useful, posting in case you do too.
http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

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I am moved to clarify my remarks above. The scoring that is present on both of my VRO 70s could be the result of several conditions and may not have anything to do with the VRO system itself. My intention above was in fact to express my own comfort with running a VRO system, but upon reading it again I see it is a bit ambiguous, so...

I actually recommended OMC VRO whenever I get the chance because it is a pretty darned good system that simply requires a tiny bit more maintenance on the engine itself. I know of several VRO engines running in all sorts of conditions and I have heard of exactly none of them failing. That's pretty good odds. As I said, I have seen one failed VRO pump back in 1986, that might even have been the result of operator abuse but was put through as warranty anyway because they guy was adamant -- and there was all sorts of "stuff" flying around back then about the supposed unreliability of the system, so he probably got a bit lucky.

I just felt after reading the link above that I should expand a bit on my earlier comment, just to make my feelings on VROs clear. I like them.

Cheers folks, just my two bits.

thank you very much I put it back on the motor and i am very happy