The pontoon boat I recenly purchased has a 1986, (I think) 40 hp VRO Evinrude that had the VRO inoperative at the time of purchase. The previous owner ran a 50:1 gas/oil mix. The alarm horn was disconnected. On the advice of a friend, I removed the oil line from the motor and pumped the oil line bulb until oil came out. Oil was not coming out when I started. I reconnected the alarm horn and ran the boat on the gas/oil mix for three 6 gal tanks of mix. The alarm horn did sound twice during that time. Both times, even though I was not concerned about the engine, since I had 50:1 mix in addition to the VRO, I did shut the engine down, pumped the oil bulb a few times, started the engine and the alarm did not sound again. This was on the first 6 gallon of mix. After the third 6 gal. tank, I switched to a 100:1 mix and ran 12 more gallon through. The oil level in the oil tank went down and I am now using straight gas and letting the VRO do its thing. All seems to be going good. <br />So, what I'm curious about:<br />(1.) Did I just not have all the air bled from the oil line to start with?<br />(2.) Is there any reason to run any oil in the fuel rather than trust the VRO?<br />There have been so many posts about VRO problems, it has made me a little nervous. <br />A marine mechanic I know that prefers Mercury motors said he felt the VRO got a lot of bad raps because people didn't take care of keeping the pickup clean and letting air get into the oil lines. He thinks I have nothing to be concerned about. <br />Is the VRO bad news? Am I just waiting for my problem to occur, or am I just letting all the negative posts get to me. I personally think it is the latter, but I would appreciate any input.<br /><br />Charles
Did you replace yours because of a problem or to avoid a future problem? If OMC was recommending the VRO removal, they probably had reasons. Sounds like I better see what is involved in making the changeover in the not too distant future. As I said, some 24 gallons have been used with no problems yet, so I'm not quite to the panic stage. If I hadn't read so many posts about it, I wouldn't even have known I had a problem.