No oil light

[JERRYA]

Baron,
The bad rap on VRO's seems to be with older motors where the system tried to vary the oil ratio based on rpms. It appears that that OMC fixed this in the mid 90's and added the Smart Gauges. Doesn't mean the system can't have problems. Here's a good read:

http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html

This article talks about water in the tank like you found. It also talks about air leaks in the system causing the no-oil light at idle speeds.

At this point, I see no reason to bypass the system - just something else that needs to be monitored/maintained.

Do post what you find to be the problem.

[The Baron]

Took my boat to outboard motor service and mark said the diaphrams inside the vro were shot so heres what they did: checked compression it was good, re-gapped the plugs, removed shrouds, replaced vapor pump diaphram, glued in air disc, replaced res, needle, and seat and set height, replaced vro pump, bled out hoses, did no oil metering and alarm test and while he had it apart i had him replace the water pump impeller and he topped off my lower unit lube all for the low low price of $1101.62. Im sure i could have got it done cheaper somewhere else but when i first went there and talked to him he showed me around the shop and showed me some vro's he had worked on and i was impressed with his knowledge of my motor. Besides how much is piece of mind worth when your out on the lake with family and friends and your confident your motor will fire up everytime , in any situation, because you had professional job done. Id recommend those guys to anyone as long as they're thick skinned cause his personality can be a little off-ish. Kinda high strung. If you ever met the guy you know what i mean lol. Im happy with the job, the motor runs great now,no alarms, and im a satusfied customer. Happy boating and tight lines

[rickerd]

Baron,
I just happened to be going to see OMS yesterday and caught your post before I went. Sounds like you had a good experience. I mentioned that to Lee. I should have had you talk to Lee, they make an interesting company. Funny I almost always get Lee on the phone when I call. Anyway, they did a quick check on my motor to make sure all is good. put in some new plugs, recommend a new propeller cause my harbor bottom is bedrock and I can't seem to spend a season totally off the bottom. I also bought some oil by the 5 gallon bucket. When I mentioned you were happy with the service, he asked me to ask you to post it on Google. I guess that is the web location they get most of their ratings and have been doing well.

I'm happy to hear you got it fixed and I'm sure they did it right. I bet if you priced out the same work now at Dberts or another shop around, you'd get the same estimate or higher. Especially now everyone who is decent up there is 5 weeks out to complete about anything.

Rickerd