Re: Water in my VRO tank...best way to bleed the system?
Before you bother, make sure the damage hasn't already been done. Do a compression test. If it's okay, immediately mix your fuel supply at 50:1.
Water gets in from exposure to rain or boat spray, condensation, or submerging in water that might have covered it. Leaving the boat plug out while in the water and filling with water comes to mind. Leaving the boat plug in while out of the water and filling with rain comes to mind.
Shake it up good and dump out the oil and start with fresh. Allowing it to separate in a container works if you want to do that, but a fresh tank of oil isn't going to kill you financially. Follow the oil line to where it enters the pump and disconnect it there. Then pump the fresh oil through until it's all the way through the line and reconnect. Be careful, the fitting is plastic and it can break.
I'd also advise draining the carburetors and forcing fresh fuel through the system until the premixed gas comes out, then putting the drain plugs back in and run the motor.
Realize that if there's water in there now, it's probably been in there awhile. Your motor might have already been getting water instead of oil. That's the leading cause of the overly maligned "failed" VRO pump. Most of the time by far, powerhead failure due to lack of lubrication isn't the fault of the pump, but the fault of what it's pumping.
