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2000 johnsin 40hp Getting it going again.

M

mike(417)

New member
I have 2000 40hp that i bought new on a lowe 170. its always been garage kept and has run perfectly. Its been setting for 6-7 years, I have replaced the water pump, the fuel bulb and hoses.
Questions
When I went to replace the inline fuel filter, it had 2 cycle oil in it, Possibly from 7 years of gravity?

At 23 years old do i just eliminate the vro and go premix? Not my favorite option, but they were burning plenty of the big motors up in 2000 when new.

Once i get it pulled out and try to start it i will see if i have other issues, but other than plugs, water pump, fuel lines(filter) any thing I need to look for?
 
Replace lower unit oil. I’d guess the fuel evaporated and left the oil behind in your fuel filter. If you left fuel in the system then you might have issues but no way to tell until your start in up.
 
William01 said:
Replace lower unit oil. I’d guess the fuel evaporated and left the oil behind in your fuel filter. If you left fuel in the system then you might have issues but no way to tell until your start in up.
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I did replace lower unit oil when i did the water pump.
The bottom half of the inline filter is almost touching the bottom of the housing so its pretty low and fuel evap would make sense.
 
Confirm that carburetor jets are clean.----Run with 50:1 mix in the tank and monitor that VRO is working. -----And test overheat horn.
 
Often times storage will allow injection oil to enter. Not uncommon. The breather cap on oil reservoir is often at fault. Easy fix. If ethanol fuel has been stored in the motor, brace yourself for some work. VRO units were originally not designed for 10 or 15 % ethanol. Replacement units are ethanol "RESISTANT"....ha! Not much better. Why waste good ethanol in the fuel? Keep your ethanol in your whiskey, brother! Just my advice. Been here a long time. Ethanol related injury accounts for over half of my repairs.
 
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I suspect it was a mix of 87 and 93 with seafoam. its supposed to be really cold this weekend so prob wont get much done anytime soon. Its been a great motor and not interested in cooking it with a bad vro, the local johnson dealers are pretty much gone and the couple of shops that friends trusted the owners retired ect. I dont mind deleting the VRO if it will likely be a problem, I havent priced the VRO rebuild kit(oem) looks like the chinese one are cheap but.... I have the Seloc manual coming, and it has the info on testing the vro, I havent heard many problems with burning up the small motors from the warning not going off, but in 2000 when this one came out they were burning the 150-200s up by the truck load.
 
Agreed. The VROs as engineered and designed are pretty good. Certain states have fallen to mandates forcing the consumption of more ethanol fuels. Sadly, MN is one of them. Our state, since so much equipment is seasonal use, should not have mandates as they exist. Since it is a hot/humid summer, and cold long winter....we are the perfect subject for ethanol fuels to demonstrate their hygroscopic properties. I buy and store non OXY fuel about 1000 gallons at a time, and without additives, typically get over 6 years, and often 10 years, of reliable use out of my above ground 265 oil tanks. VROs are quickly destroyed by storing ethanol fuel over the 7 months off season. Mechanical oil injection similar to what's used on many older 2 strokes, of course are independent of the fuel pumps. It's that incorporation by OMC, by the marriage of a fuel and oil delivery system in one unit, and not calculating the destruction of delicate rubber composition components, when exposed to ethanol....that really helped drive the tragedy of loosing such a fantastic outboard company.
 
timguy said:
Agreed. The VROs as engineered and designed are pretty good. Certain states have fallen to mandates forcing the consumption of more ethanol fuels. Sadly, MN is one of them. Our state, since so much equipment is seasonal use, should not have mandates as they exist. Since it is a hot/humid summer, and cold long winter....we are the perfect subject for ethanol fuels to demonstrate their hygroscopic properties. I buy and store non OXY fuel about 1000 gallons at a time, and without additives, typically get over 6 years, and often 10 years, of reliable use out of my above ground 265 oil tanks. VROs are quickly destroyed by storing ethanol fuel over the 7 months off season. Mechanical oil injection similar to what's used on many older 2 strokes, of course are independent of the fuel pumps. It's that incorporation by OMC, by the marriage of a fuel and oil delivery system in one unit, and not calculating the destruction of delicate rubber composition components, when exposed to ethanol....that really helped drive the tragedy of loosing such a fantastic outboard company.
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Everything here had 10% ethanol at the begining but now premium is exempt. I remember gasahol from the 80's.
I live 70 miles from The Lowe boat factory that was owned by OMC when they went under. I met two of the lowe employees testing a boat at my favorite lake. They told me the the investmet company that owned them had 3 jets they kept in the air nearly constantly. They had constant meetings, the bahamas, NYC ect and the private jets picked everyone up and flew them to the locations. While they were making decesions like putting my 170 on the same trailer as the much heavier 180 to consilate and save money. My 17' alum. boat had 190lbs of tounge weight. Trailer has non adjustable axles. Ive moved the bunks, moved everything i can to get it down to about 140, should be about 115. They believed bad management by people that new nothing about boating was the downfall.
 
“Everything here had 10% ethanol at the begining but now premium is exempt.“

Just because premium fuel is exempt doesn’t mean that they don’t add ethanol to the fuel, at least in Canada and I’m assuming the US is the same. If I’m away from home I refer to the link below and/or ask management.

https://www.pure-gas.org/
 
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