Stuck hydraulic for assisted tilt in 40hp

[johnyrude200]

And PS Dan, yes, you did send me the ’89 manuals. I just haven’t had anything new enough to use them on yet and had forgotten they were even in my possession! Looking forward to cracking them open in the next day or so!

[fleetwin]

Well, the 40-60hp models have no major cooling concerns, but any motor used in salt water means that regular cooling system service/overhauls are a must to keep it cooling properly. The biggest pain on these engines (88 and earlier) is thermostat access, you must removed that big water cover on the head. It is usually easier to just remove the head to make thermostat access simpler, but it can be done with the head on. The later models had simple thermostats that simply unthreaded. This simple design got mucked up in later years with crazy springs/diaphragms/cups, so thermostats can get pretty confusing, especially if parts have been mixed and matched. The 89 and newer models have a questionable impeller housing grommet design, but a problem would be evident just by pulling the gearcase down. Water pump designs have been overly "designed" as well, you may see some impellers with only three blades, I know, engineering on drugs. Some water pump kits include different thermostat springs as well.
VRO/OMS certainly has no performance or longevity advantages, but it is a simple system and is easily defeated if you want to premix. The system does have a simple "no oil flow" alarm, but this system does not know the difference between oil and water. The system is far from perfect but often ends up being a scapegoat for poor engine performance or powerhead failure. OMC brought this system to market to compete with foreign competition and because customers hate mixing oil/gas. To me, any oil injection system is messy, especially inside the boat where the tank is. I find it easier to premix, using a little gas from the nozzle and rag to clean up any spills on the tank/boat fuel filler neck. BUT, I certainly do not represent the average outboard customer. The one drawback to defeating the system is that fuel dock employees, or "friends" assume newer engine is oil injected and fail to pre mix. The engine will idle all day with no oil, but the game is over in seconds once power is applied.

[dan-in-tn]

I second everything Don just said. New boating customers don’t want to mix oil at all. They just want to pull up to a fuel pump and put in 3,6, or 25 gallons of gas and do no figuring of mixing ratios. If they have been drinking they wouldn’t get it right anyway! The docks just want to put straight fuel in everything now that most engines are oil injected or four strokes. Nothing is their fault!
As far as the new DFI motors you can’t default the oil injected systems. The oil is only injected to the rod wells. Re circulation systems take care of the test. The system detects if the oil injection injector is pumping. Motor is shut down to limp mode (idle) if a problem is detected. All computer driven. Idling is not a problem with no oil as Don stated.
The VRO pump is a very good fuel pump. The problems it had were actually from its inability to determine water or fuel from oil in the onboard tank. It’s interesting that in both cases when asked the customer will admit that the engine had started to use less oil than before! Not sure why that does register with the owner, but it doesn’t. If you had a truck that was burning a quart of oil a month and it just stopped all of the sudden wouldn’t you wonder why? Two strokes are suppose to burn oil and you had to know this since you had always put oil in it before. Lack of common sense. But you have to make things idiot proof now days. I do know that the Merc & Yamaha systems were a lot more complicated and difficult to unhook. The VRO system got blamed for a lot of ills it didn’t create. One cylinder failures are not Oil system failures!

Dan in TN

[jerry-ahrens]

Interesting thread here guys. I have heard that the older VRO units with the ”brown” 90 degree fitting on top should be replaced. Is this true? I still see a lot of early VRO units still in service, say, early 90s or so.
I will second the fact that they make great stand alone fuel pumps. I have been running the original VRO on my 1985 150 for a fuel pump. I finally took it off last year and went with the older twin fuel pump set up, since I had a parts motor with everything I needed.But that old VRO was still going strong.

[Casey Lynn]

There are no series of VRO pumps that "should" be replaced. Far more pumps died of water in the oil, lack of oil, or too much fuel additive in the gasoline warping check valves or swelling O-rings and sticking the pump.

The other funny and interesting scenario we used to hear about were the customers who’s powerhead stuck from water being in the oil tank and they would proudly tell us how they pumped the fuel primer bulb and ran the engine all the way home!

Naturally this was defeating the pump and pumping straight gasoline through the engine………

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