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Disconnect a VRO system

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Rich Thomas

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I have a 1990 200hp Johnson ou

I have a 1990 200hp Johnson outboard. I would like to disconnect the VRO system and just add oil to the fuel as I don't want to suffer the expensive consequences if the VRO should fail. Is that possible or should I just leave it alone.
 
"If it works, I would leave it

"If it works, I would leave it.
When operating the VRO gives some free added info.
The biggest risk for Your engine is fuel starvation, resulting in lean burning. If the fuel section of the pump starts to fail, or You get an air-leak in the system, the VRO will start giving too much oil -excessive smoke. Time to change/repair the fuel pump.
Just keep Your oil-tank with clean oil and fresh hoses, and test the oil-alarm system."
 
Ok... thanks. I will leave it

Ok... thanks. I will leave it as is. At least now I know what to look for should it have a problem. How do you check the oil alarm system.
 
The 'proper' way is to

The 'proper' way is to disconnect the oil hose close to the VRO and start the engine!
It might be smart to hook up a small separate fuel tank with 2% mix during the test.
 
"to insure the VRO/OMS pump is

"to insure the VRO/OMS pump is working properly,is a simple,but very important procedure.Oil consumption should be verified,as well as ALL warning systems related to it,..(low oil,no oil,etc)..its a very good system,but this should be done AT LEAST every 2 yrs.if the VRO/oms is say around 8 yrs old,or older,and if the customer wants to stay on it,I recommend replacing it.The above tests are of course performed at this time.Also,the oil tank should be cleaned/emptied completely,filter replaced,oil hose/bulb conn's etc checked.many engines have gone down due to lack of maintenence,not the vro's fault,neccessarily.If a person,chooses not,to deal w/the above procedures,then the correct advice is to go to premix,meaning u mix oil in the gas at fill up."
 
"jwbmarine wrote: "...if

"jwbmarine wrote: "...if the VRO/oms is say around 8 yrs old,or older,and if the customer wants to stay on it,I recommend replacing it..."

In your experience, how many "shop hours", would a professional shop charge to replace an existing VRO2 pump with a current OMS pump and new pulse limiter - including re-rigging oil and fuel lines of course. Not concerned with parts, just labor.

The reason I'm asking is that I'm seriously considering having the original VRO2 pump on my 1990 200 hp (J200TXESM) replaced. It's working fine and the engine is very low hours (about 200) but I'm just trying to update it and avoid problems in the middle of nowhere.

Looking at my setup, it seems that the pump replacement would be very simple, but it also looks like it will be difficult for me to get access to the pulse limiter (not difficult to remove and replace, just difficult to get at it). Because of that (pulse limiter), I'm thinking of having the whole thing done by a shop rather than screw it up myself."
 
"Rich - there's a very inf

"Rich - there's a very informative article on this subject: http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

As for testing the oil-related alarms. There are two "low oil" and "no oil". The low oil alarm has a sensor in the oil tank and should sound when the tank gets to about 1/4 full. You can easily test this by just letting your oil tank get that low.

The no oil alarm sounds when there is insufficient oil reaching the VRO/OMS pump. The sensor is at the pump. To test you can run premix fuel in your normal fuel tanks, but allow the oil tank to empty out completely. The no oil alarm should sound shortly after the tank runs dry, after all the oil is sucked out of the line. Since you're running premix, the engine will be safe. Or, instead of waiting that long, you can just disconnect the oil line as someone else mentioned. The no oil alarm should sound pretty quickly. You will have to purge/prime the oil line afterwards, but that is very simple.

Good luck."
 
"da johnson-----it depends on

"da johnson-----it depends on prices,in your area...to do a VRO/OMS verification procedure,at MY shop,...runs 70.00 dlrs...1 hr labor....we have found many a NO ALARM,failures..it is 70.00 dlrs well spent.......u can flip a coin,hope for the best,by inst a new vro,....which,..80% of the time may wk just fine....DO YOU,...want to be in the 20%..................area?.of failures due to imp installation?....bad parts...NEW parts,...fail too!"
 
"Upon,re-reading your info,and

"Upon,re-reading your info,and to answer your question,......2 hrs...140.00 dlrs............to do the vro service,..sorry i missed the entirety."
 
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