I am experiencing this VRO now. I have a 91 Johnson Fast strike 150. I apologize in advance for the lengthyness of this post.
It was running very rough and using a lot of oil it seemed. I brought it to a very reputable marine mechanic that had actually rebuilt the engine himself 2 years prior for the guy I bout it off of. You can or could before this eat off of the engine it was so clean. I had not told him about the oil consumption at first (my bad). The previous owner had messed with carb adjustments, timing, etc. because he wanted more speed. The mechanic checked out the compression on all cylinders and they were all over 101 lbs and within 8 lbs of each other. He also told me that the timing and everything were not synched and the carbs needed a good cleaning and took care of all that. He said it was now running much better, especially at low idle. When I then mentioned about the oil consumption he said the VRO pump was probably bad. After wiping a little crud off the front of the VRO, there was a hole melted through the small cover, just above the oil line. He said it definately needed a new VRO pump and looked up the price. "Holy shit!" was his response (Not good for me!). An OMC pump was listed for over $500. Add in his labor and ouch! He advised to either invest the money and get the OMC or bypass the system as some have noted above by doing exactly what thos have said to do. He strongly suggested NOT buying a cheap Chinese knock-off from online, as they are mostly junk and not reliable. Either way he said to do something before running the motor more now. Well I went against his advice and went with a knock-off for about $200. Hey, it came with a 1 year replacement guarantee so I took a chance.
The day it came in the mail, I installed it. It was very easy to hook up and did not leak anywhere when I had it on the muffs/hose in my driveway and I was on the water that same day. Not 5 minutes into driving away from the dock, it stalled. After numerous attempts to restart the motor, I popped the engine cover off. I then noticed a nice rainbow slick in the water behind me. While I was looking at the engine, I squeezed the primer bulb. Gas was pissing out from both sides and the top of the pump. I tighten the screws that I was able to just a tad and tried again. It made no difference and gas was still pissing out. I trimmed up the motor and fished completely on trolling motor power for about an hour and just ended up calling it a day. Got my money back from the guy I bout the VRO pump off of and he told me to just throw it away I provided action shots of gas pissing out sides), since it was of no use to him. I tried to exchange the protected circuit board and put it on my old pump (that was not leaking ever). When I pumped the oil bulb on top of the oil tank and watched, oil was now pissing out. I put the old one back on, primed it and no leaks Now I'm just back to where I started.
I have decided to bypass the pump as some have suggested and by the instructions mentioned. I ended up finishing at 10:30pm, a little too late to start the boat on the muffs/hose. The neighbors would not have appreciated it. Now I am just going to pre mix. The problem or maybe just a challenge is that I had filled both gas tanks prior to launching. What is the best way to get the oil mixed with that gas? Today I am going to West Marine and over paying for a pre-mix bottle and some more oil. So I'm pretty sure that I can't just pour the 50:1 amount down the gas fill tubes, right? Maybe I can remove
the gas gage units on top of each tank, pour it in and use a clean pole or something to mix or maybe I will have to just get a few gas cans and syphon out the gas in the tanks and then measure and mix the oil into those on the ground? A lot of work (and probably the most accurate) but I don't want to blow my engine.Suggestions on best methods mentioned or any others I haven't?
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read my looooong post. I'll try to keep them shorter moving forward.