2000 50hp Johnson VRO

Last fall I posted a question about my oil warning alarm going off and the advice at the time was the VRO pump being possibly being bad…Now I have this question..
After taking it in for a tune-up ect.right after I bought it… was told that disabling the VRO and going to mixed fuel was a good idea…that these year motors had problems.
Figured that I would leave it as is…heck..it was a newer motor.
Now I’ve heard from more than one person that this was a weak spot in these motors and it should be disabled.
This sound reasonable to anyone??
It as not been running very well at slow speeds and seems to be picky about starting…..could this be related??
Any opinions??

I had an older model (1986) 40 hp Johnson VRO and one day the pump went out and I burnt up the motor , after that happened I talked with a lot of people and heard the same thing you are explaining, that the pump can go out and your motor will burn up, if you mix the gas that cannot happen. At that time I asked the question why an alarm did not go off, I was told that year model only had an alarm for low oil not if the pump was not working. If I was doing it again I would most likely mix the gas for the peace of mind. I am by no means a mechanic but our stories sound very similar.

My friend has a ’92 Evinrude and the VRO went out last fall. There is no way you could have run it with that alarm blaring. If you know your alarm works, I wouldn’t worry about it.

I got a 92 evinrude vro, i had my beeper go off last spring the first time i used it after storage, took it in and said that there was maybe air in the oil line somwhere, sometime, but they couldn’t find anything wrong with it, and the warning buzzer never went off for them.

Talked to a dealer about getting a yam 4stroke this spring and he said that he would recomend getting my engine switched to run mixed gas if i decided to keep it. Said it should run better, smoke less etc. because its always getting the right amount of oil. Said the VRO’s really are unreliable on the amount of oil they inject. They are suppose to vary the amount based on rpm, temperature and whatever, but they dont work good most of the time. Who wants to mix gas and oil the way these engine suck fuel? Im gonna just run ‘er till shes dead, then i got an excuse to get a new one.

I have a 1991 Evinrude 60HP tiller I have run Amsoil in it since I have had it and never had an issue with the VRO. They do offer an updated VRO that if you watch E-Bay, can pick them up reasonably compared to the dealer cost.

If your worried about it going out. The engine should shut down to max 2500 RPM and alarm sound if the VRO does go out. The change over to the new style is plug and play. The new style if I remember correctly has three wires where the older has two wires.

No way will I go back to mixing oil and gas.

Thanks for the info guy’s…just wanted to update the symptoms..the alarm was going off multiple times..shut it down..made sure the bulb was hard..started it up and in a short time it would go off again.

Actually, the much-maligned pump is very simple and

reliable. It does get blamed for almost every engine problem on those models.

Sounds like a fuel restriction alarm to me.

I did a lot of research on this last year, I was having issues, and the research I came up with really said the early VRO units has some small issues, I believe they were like 1990ish and older, my motor was a ’97 everything I read seem to only support that the VRO is a good system and I shouldn’t disable it. There is a filter in the oil tank I ended up replacing everything just incase, VRO pump filter and the whole alarm unit on the oil tank, the only work my motor ever had since I owned it (sold it to my cousin, still runs perfect)

You are sure it’s an oil alarm? not an overheat or fuel restriction alarm? I can’t remeber the differences.

Mine would beeeep, beeeep, beeeep, and get faster if i went faster, like i said dealer said there wasnt anything wrong with it when i took it in, and i havent heard a beep from it since. He said, they have to here the beep to know whats wrong with it, i don’t know, i guess all in all its been a good, reliable engine for an older 2stroke cold smoke Oh yeah, he said there was a loose fuel line clamp, that might have done it.

I think a guy can think himself to death on this site

To quote a smart man i know:
“turn the radio up and just @$#%^&’ drive”

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Thanks for the info guy’s…just wanted to update the symptoms..the alarm was going off multiple times..shut it down..made sure the bulb was hard..started it up and in a short time it would go off again.

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Sounds exactly like what we had happen last year. Beep, beep, beep. Shut it down, pump the oil bulb (it was hard), start it up again, run fine for 30 seconds or so, then beep, beep, beep.

Make sure it’s the oil alarm, like mentioned, but it defintely sounds like it could be VRO. I’d take it to a mechanic you trust, though, because there are a lot of guys who will just replace the VRO for no reason. My friend had an issue two years ago. Talked to a guy at a big dealer in the cities who immediately told him it was his VRO. Turns out he had a bad primer bulb on his gas line. $5 fix.

Once again thanks for the help guys!!
I think I’ll check-clean,ect. everything and see what happens when I get it out the first time.
Mine is a steady beep and one of the dash lights pops on…think it might be the low oil light???
I would like to leave it hooked up.
But if not….does this (unhooking it ) require a mech. to do it – or do you just unhook the wires ect. ???
Thanks again for all the help….cYa on the water…soon

If it’s a steady beep, I don’t think that it’s an oil problem. Here’s what I found about the VRO alarm horns:

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1 – A steady constant beep = Overheating – The V/6 engines, possibly some others, have a fuel restriction warning which is also a steady constant beep.
2 – A beep every 20 or 40 seconds = oil level has dropped to 1/4 tank. (Late model engine = Every 40 seconds)
3 – A beep every other second = VRO failure, air leak in oil line, oil restriction, (anything that would result in a lack of oil being supplied to the engine).

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Interesting….Thanks…
Do you know if the same codes are used for motors with the dash gauge??
Mine has 4… Low Oil , No Oil , Water Temp , and Check Engine.