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1988 150 vro v6

S

shotblaster

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could anyone let me know the p

could anyone let me know the pros and conns if any of the vro unit being disconnected other than having to mix gas and oil yourself. Also which prop would i run with this motor on a 20ft boston whaler
 
My opinion is that the vro is

My opinion is that the vro is unreliable at best. I would go as far as saying that vro and fict are the 2 main reasons why OMC almost fell off the face of the earth. VRO was a bad design and was a result of a rush to compete with Yamaha's oil injection. Many OMC engines had short lives as a result of this vacummn driven pump. The sad thing is that OMC had years to develop and change to gear driven system and never did. Pre-mix your oil and your Johnson will still be runing like many of the pre-VRO Johnson still are.
 
"I have to disagree with you R

"I have to disagree with you Rollie. The VRO is among the best oil injection systems ever made. During it's first two years of use, there were some probemes with ethanol compatibility. A few other minor tweaks, and they had it perfected within a couple years of it's introduction. It was successfully used for more than 20 years!

It's simplicity is what makes it work best. The oil pump and fuel pump are operated by the same air motor. This means most any failure will not starve the engine of oil without also stopping fuel delivery. Contrast this to a gear driven pump that can stop pumping oil while the engine continues to run on straight gas. Instant powerhead failure. The VRO system is the only oil injection system to offer a no oil warning.

I don't know much about the Yamaha system. Mercury's sytem with the pressurized tank in the boat feeding a small tank on the motor, which feeds the gear driven pump, which feeds through multiple fittings, valves, and hoses is certainly not more reliable than a VRO. Read the link JWB posted. Lots of good information."
 
No ethanol problems up here in

No ethanol problems up here in Canada. The shop I've delt with for over 20 years started as a Johnson only dealership and was so from the 60's up until they added a 2nd line in the 80's. They now carry 3 lines of outboards..Johnson was the 4th up until about 2 years after OMC's collapse. Both local OMC dealerships have now dropped them as no-one would buy them. I used to operate nothing but Johnson/Evinrudes. Great engines for the most part up until they added oil injection...my first 70HP Evenirude VRO blew up after 10 months. Not enough oil was the cause. They had so many engines blowing up after relatively short periods of time (more so in any commercial aplication) where more hours are logged in short time period. Eventually if you bought a VRO engine for any commercial use they would only honor warrenties if you added oil to gas. The engines did last longer but few operators were that loyal to a brand to put up with the inconvenience. My last VRO OMC was in 1987. The Japanese gear driven oil injection came from 30 + years of motorbike success. Oil is introduced by a gear driven pump which is 100% variable by RPM...more RPM's..more oil. Not just 50 to 1 or 100 to 1. My own hunch with VRO is that it used to get stuck or delay in 100 to 1 mode when it should have switched to 50 to 1.
 
"oil tank cleaned/new filter i

"oil tank cleaned/new filter installed at least every 2 yrs....connections cked,all alarms should be tested,and an oil consumption test done,any time u get a no oil horn,..or during maintenance."
 
"I've volunteered at a sum

"I've volunteered at a summer camp for many years now. From 1985 to around 2004 there were 5 boats that operated various VRO equipped motors over the years. Each of these 5 boats logged over 150 hours per year.

In all these thousands of operating hours, the only lubrication failure was when an inexperienced operator ran the oil tank dry and ignored the warning horn.

You can't do much better than that!"
 
"Don't get me wrong, not a

"Don't get me wrong, not all VRO motors blow up. Just a higher number than a buyer should except. When the shop I mentioned added Yami's to their lineup..within 3 to 4 years there were 2 to 3 times more of them going out the door on the back of boats than the Johnson's. Yet the shop had 4 or 5 times more newer Johnson's in the shop for repairs. Come on guys...I WAS A JOHNSON GUY AT ONE TIME TOO! Be honest, who would you want assembling a throubred engine? Mexican or Japanese worker? Have you seen the 2 engines stripped down and the quality difference in the castings, places you don't see when assemble. I still remember hearing brand new Johnson's fired up for the first time out of the crate...being pdi'd for the customer. They had very noticable piston slap noise from the first rpm. I still hope that the company will turn it around and once again lead the pack and produce quality engines througout their lineup. Until then there are better choices...my livelyhood depends on reliabilty."
 
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