Johnson 1990 90 HP VRO

[magicnov]

Just got a Four Winns 170 with a 90 HP VRO. I've seen a lot of discussion about the faulty pumps and people disconnecting and premixing the oil themselves. I spoke to a mechanic about it and his suggestion was to leave the pump in place and functional, but also pre-mix oil at 100:1 directly into the gas. He said that this way if the pump ever were to fail, you wouldn't fry the motor before you realized that the pump wasn't adding the oil the way it should be. Any thoughts on taking this approach and also the issue of the engine running on a higher oil mix if I do follow his suggestion? Always appreciate the advice from those with experience.

Thanks!

 

[metriccrescentwrench]

Re: Johnson 1990 90 HP VRO

Well, that might work.... but if you're going to pre-mix gas anyway why not just pre-mix it at 50:1 and disable the VRO? There's nothing at all to disabling them, plug the oil hose and disconnect the wires. If you want to add a measure of safety while you verify that the pump is functioning properly you can certainly do this, as this is the procedure called out in the manual.

I've read a few articles explaining why VRO's are actually pretty darned robust, and they seem to make sense. But on the other side of the debate, everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who had a brother-in-law blow up an engine because of a supposed faulty VRO, but you'll never find any facts backing up that claim.