1990 Johnson 140 VRO. Good or bad?

[Clint r]

Got a line on a 1990 Johnson 140 VRO. My new old boats rated for ip to 140hp so am considering it. Being a mercury guy, what do I look out for on this motor?

 

[scott craven]

The VRO oiling systems were suspect in engine failures.
I had a 60hp Johnson and disconnected the VRO and premixed my fuel.
Some worked great, others not so good.

 

[Bent-Tip]

I have a 115 VRO. I will use it till it won't work anymore. There is some discussion on other boards about VRO reliability. The second one is particularly helpful to me as the problems they describe happen to me from time to time and it's all related to fuel delivery and upkeep.

http://www.thehulltruth.com/boating...v-4-should-i-disconnect-oil-injection-no.html

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

 

[SpringVelocity]

Excellent motor I had 1989 60hp VRO...and I believe the guy who bought on this forum is still running it.... Very reliable. Disable the premix is my only suggestion.. I had minimal problems with mine and had a lot of hours... Upkeep is minimal....

 

[Clint r]

Thanks. Doing some online research, the Oil mixer delete sounds like a standard procedure with the VRO motors. I'm going to check it out some more this afternoon. I've had a look at it but need to dig into it further. Compression test ect before I make a move on it.

 

[Island Fish Lifter]

its funny how I keep hearing advice on disconnecting the vro. It stands for variable ratio oiling, and ive never seen one lose its oiling properties, the only failures ive seen is over oiling. They are made up of springs and diaphragms and are really quite reliable. I was an OMC mechanic back in the 90's. I believe the 140 model was a loop charged commercial model. Damn near bullet proof.

 

[SpringVelocity]

I ran it this way for 8 years with a lot of use.... But maybe its different on higher horsepower models??

 

[Clint r]

From what I've read, it's about 50/50 wether they're problem free or not. From what I understand sometimes there's no warning of upcoming engine failure and other times there's a low oil alarm. To disable the pump requires a different style of fuel pump. Which raises the question of parts availability.

 

[SpringVelocity]

That's why I yanked mine....Was that reason....

 

[Island Fish Lifter]

if it was me, I would stay with the vro.

 

[Bent-Tip]

if it was me, I would stay with the vro.

X 2. If it works, why disconnect it??

 

[Saxe Point]

I'm still using the VRO on my 1996 Johnson 90 hp.

 

[SpringVelocity]

I can see both way being right I just didn't want to really on knowing what my oil mixture was that all... Back to post though the only thing that were periodically were nuisances were seals on stuff on lower leg... I also bought the envinrude oil and never ran the cheaper oils...

Another thing I did as I only ran my motor at 75-80% capacity...Never full out...

 

[Clint r]

Here's a few pictures. Not sure what I'm going to do yet, but got the boat, motor and trailer for $400.00. Motor turns over with spark and has compression on all cylinders. Don't know what the compression measures yet though. Tilt trim motor sticks in the down position. Boats a write off as floors soft and transoms pretty flexy. But I thought the trailer was worth the $400 alone. Boat and trailer both came with regi so I can't lose. Probably going to cost $300 to get rid of the boat at the landfill. No time to play with it as I'm super busy for the next while.

 

[sly_karma]

VRO came out in 1983/84. There were problems with it and the system was redesigned for the 1986 model year, but the damage was done. VRO has had a bad reputation ever since. I'd disable the VRO system if I had an 84 or 85 model, but after that the system proved to be reliable and did a good job of handling the low rpm plug fouling suffered by pre mix, fixed ratio engines. Today, virtually all new two strokes have some version of a variable oil ratio system and no one even thinks about it. That old looper should run like a train for you.