Johnson 225 Oil Warning Troubleshooting

Hi All,

Trying to keep my late father-in-law's Grady White with '94 Johnson Ocean Runner 225 running well. Generally the engine runs pretty well and strong, but I've got a couple of issues I'd like help diagnosing and resolving. The main one right now is that the oil warning on the VRO periodically goes off, but really only at idle or very low power. Typically I'll be running at speed and then when we lower speed down (to no wake speed, for example) within a couple of minutes the low oil warning will kick in. A couple pumps on the oil bulb makes it go away for at least a few minutes. It's just kind of annoying and a little alarming (no pun intended) to others that are on board.

I gather that the VRO pulls oil in via vacuum, correct? Would checking for vacuum leaks (hoses, oil tank gaskets, etc.) be the first place to look? If, what's a good source for that (can't seem to find those easily here on our host's site)?

Some more info: part of this issue seemed to start last year after I put some old oil in the tank my father-in-law had stored. It looked a little curdled , and I think some of that got into the system. I ended up trying to clean out the oil tank and lines and rebuilt the VRO pump with one of those kits. I'm thinking of biting the bullet and buying a new VRO pump, but it's cheaper to focus on vacuum leaks if that's likely the root cause.

Thanks in advance for helping a "dumb Army guy" out

Are you getting a NO oil or a LOW oil warning?
Did you change the oil filter?

I'm getting the warning that is fairly constant. I vaguely recall that there's one to indicate low oil in the reservoir and another to indicate that not enough oil is being delivered by the VRO, right? I think I'm getting the latter one.

I don't recall changing the oil filter last year so I'm going to say the answer to that is probably "no, I haven't." But I'm guessing I should.

Correction, I did change the strainer element in the oil tank reservoir, if that's what you mean by oil filter.

Ok,what did you do last yearand what have you done in the last week?
How much have you used it since last year?
Did you properly purg and prime oil system?

Last year I tried to repair / clean the VRO fuel pump using the kit that is available. I replaced the oil filter element and replaced the oil in the tank with fresh oil. We use the boat about once a week (or two). It spent the winter in storage, and no, I didn't do anything with regard to purging or priming oil system when I put it back in the water. Sounds like I'm missing something.

Did you get ALL the bad oil out of the oil hose all the way to vro pump?
Do you have a johnson service manual?

I don't know if I got it all out or not. I definitely removed as much as possible from reservoir and changed the filter element. I cleaned the VRO pump.

I've got two service manuals. One is Seloc and the other I think is Johnson.

All the info you need is covered in your johnson service manual. We are still here to help.
Need to mix your gas 50/1 till this is fixec.
Need to get all that crudy stuff out of oil line and maybe pump.