OMC vro problem?

[Dutch]

Not a hot rod, but got the 99 omc 115 v4 out of retirement of two years to take the kids water skiing. Drained the carbs and started right up with fresh gas. Problem is the no oil light stays on. It had the vro replaced a few years ago, no issues when parked. Oil tank is full, where do I start looking? Thanks.

[pointer]

Does the float switch work?

pointer

[toyomirage02]

best bet is to just do away with it and just mix the fuel

[doogall]

best bet is to just do away with it and just mix the fuel

VROs work great on ski boats, less smoke and no messing with oil in tanks. On the plus side you can drain the fuel out of the boat when it gets a bit old and throw in in the wifes car and get new stuff for the boat:D

must be the scottage heritage comming out of me:thumbsup:

[donmac]

Make sure there is 50:1 fuel mix in the tank and run the motor at a fast idle WITHOUT the oil line hooked up. It may take as long as 5 minutes, but you want to hear the NO OIL alarm sound to certify that the system is working. Then while the motor is still running and the alarm is sounding.with the oil line full from squeezing the primer bulb and bleeding all the air out of the line, push the line onto the pump fitting, then wait. A good pump will prime itself and the alarm will go off, after a few moments. If you have the System Check gauge, the alarm only sounds for 10 seconds, but the NO OIL lite stays on. When the pump "primes", the light goes out. That way you bleed the system, test the alarm, and check that the pump is strong enough to prime itself. now run it on the 50/1 mix until confirm that the oil level in the tank is dropping!

[JWTjr.]

Make sure there is 50:1 fuel mix in the tank and run the motor at a fast idle WITHOUT the oil line hooked up. It may take as long as 5 minutes, but you want to hear the NO OIL alarm sound to certify that the system is working. Then while the motor is still running and the alarm is sounding.with the oil line full from squeezing the primer bulb and bleeding all the air out of the line, push the line onto the pump fitting, then wait. A good pump will prime itself and the alarm will go off, after a few moments. If you have the System Check gauge, the alarm only sounds for 10 seconds, but the NO OIL lite stays on. When the pump "primes", the light goes out. That way you bleed the system, test the alarm, and check that the pump is strong enough to prime itself. now run it on the 50/1 mix until confirm that the oil level in the tank is dropping! follow this advice!

[King Dad]

Yes, add the 50/1 oil to the fuel. Then go to the vro pump, remove the clamp that holds the oil line from the oil tank right @ the pump nipple and purge the oil line up to the end of the line using the oil tank primer bulb. You want no air in the line so it's a direct oil feed right up to the pump. Now, you can do this one of two ways. The prescribed way is to leave the line off, run the engine at a fairly fast idle rpm 'till the no oil alarm goes off (sounds the horn), then without turning off the ignition, connect the line, secure clamp and give the oil tank primer bulb one or two manly squeezes 'till you "feel" the oil going into the VRO. Continue to run on the lake with the pre-mix and oil injection. Mark the oil tank with tape or majic marker and observe the oil going down over a few hrs. If it don't drop, don't go back to straight fuel until you figure out what u want to do next.... The 2nd way is to just squeeze the oil tank primer bulb and hope u get all the air out of the line and then trust the vro electronics to work correctly. That's after you put pre-mix in the fuel anyway!!! BTW, system check guages are always a problem so consider the guage could be a problem even tho everything else could be ok. BUT, whenever the engine is "down" for pro=long'd amounts of time, Premix is usually your fail-safe....... Just in case!

[Dutch]

ok. did the bleeding thing after I added oil to the fuel tank. boat runs good but still says no oil/ten second buzzer goes off. I marked the oil tank and plan on running a good bit of fuel thru it next weekend. if I un-hook the three wire plug to the front of the VRO will that get rid of the annoying oil buzzer every time I start it until I figure out what the problem is. thanks again.

[King Dad]

If you have all the air out of the oil line, then connect the oil line, 2 or 3 manly squeezes to "fill" the VRO pump itself AND it still sounds the alarm then one of two things have happened. 1) the electronic portion of the pump has fail'd. It can't be bought seperatly nor can it be repair'd. or 2) the electronic portion is actually working correctly and informing you that the pump is not oiling the engine, just like it's supposed to do. There is a test using clear oil lines in the OMC factory manual on how to test the fuel and oiling portions of the pump. I'd suggest you get one for all the helpful info in it!!

[Dutch]

did all this and run about 50 gallons of premix thru the boat. I marked the tank and it is definitely using oil. Used about a gallon. Is there anyway to test to make sure its not a bad gauge or sending unit in the resevoir tank before I replace the VRO? Gauge says "no oil" the "low oil" light goes out once started. Dads boat, he is old and doesn't want to premix. thanks again

[Instigator]

Typically, VRO pumps do not go bad. Testing of both the pump and the gauge is covered in a factory manual.

[King Dad]

FYI, the two black leads coming out of the boat mounted oil tank are for low oil alarms. One is a ground and the other goes to the "Horn" and or the SystemCheck guage. You can unplug the two bullet connectors located inside the engine pan and disable the low oil alarm. The VRO has the no-oil alarm electronics @ the aft end of the pump. You'll find a wiring harness coming out of the pump. It's about 12" long and has a plug in so you could un-plug it if you wanted to remove the pump for service. I will tell you that "typically" VROs have as many have issues (crappy fuel) as any other engines but not often resulting in the dreaded "not pumping oil and my engine blew up thingy....." senario that many talk inaccurately about.

[Dcramer]

The float in the tank only controls the low oil light. The no oil light is controlled by the electronic module on the pump. It actually measures the pressure pulses from the pump discharge and compares their frequency with the tachometer input. This way it gets a pretty good idea as to the amount of oil being delivered vs engine speed.

You can start by checking all the wiring. Some pumps have three wires (ground, alarm, tach). Later pumps had a 4th wire for power. These were less likely to false-alarm than others. Note that if you have system check gauges, the pump is probably a 4 wire pump. Ensure the connections are tight and corrosion free. Make sure you aren't using NGK spark plugs--especially NGK "R" plugs. These have a reputation for setting off false alarms.

On some generations of pumps, the module and oil input can be unscrewed from the main pump body. There is a small pin that points forward into the top of the oil pump. That pin needs to move fairly freely up and down. That pin is actuated by a plunger in the passage between the oil pump and fuel pump. You can try disassembling the pump enough to free up that plunger if its stuck. Other than that, you're probably looking at a new pump.

The following links to an article on the VRO. There is a cut-away drawing that will help make sense of the above. http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

[Lockjaw]

I would double check that you don't have air in the line by disconnecting it and pumping the bulb and putting the oil into a jar. I have "bled" mine and connected it only to get an alarm. Then had to "rebleed" it to make it go away.