Thread: Johnson 60hp

Just bought a used boat with a 60hp Johnson on it(1988 model). There's a separate reservoir for oil so mixing oil/gas is not necessary. However, the guy I got the boat from warned me that the oil pumps are notorious for going out and that I wouldn't know it wasn't working until the engine blew up. So he mixed 50:1 in the gas AND put oil in the oil reservoir. What are yalls thoughts on this? Isn't it too much oil? What if I just always mixed 50:1 and said to heck with the oil reservoir? Is that a bad idea? If I just went with mixing my own, what do I do with the oil reservoir? Thanks ahead of time...

Originally Posted by craigodem

Just bought a used boat with a 60hp Johnson on it(1988 model). There's a separate reservoir for oil so mixing oil/gas is not necessary. However, the guy I got the boat from warned me that the oil pumps are notorious for going out and that I wouldn't know it wasn't working until the engine blew up. So he mixed 50:1 in the gas AND put oil in the oil reservoir. What are yalls thoughts on this? Isn't it too much oil? What if I just always mixed 50:1 and said to heck with the oil reservoir? Is that a bad idea? If I just went with mixing my own, what do I do with the oil reservoir? Thanks ahead of time...

Doing both is definitely way too much oil. It will lead to more carbon build up than under normal conditions and premature fouling of spark plugs.

If you are not willing to trust the oil pump then just mix 50:1 yourself. As far as the oil pump, I would think that all that you need to do is disable the alarm and simply not put oil in it---again only if you pre-mix!

One more thing I recommend is the use of "carbon guard". I add it to to every tank of fuel, that and stabilizer

Knock on wood---I have a 1982 Johnson 60 hp and she is still running strong! This motor pre-dates oil injection, VRO, etc; however, I have a 90 hp Merc on my pontoon boat and I am afraid of this oilinjection stuff too, but, it is supposed to give an alarm if no oil is pumping.

Good luck to you!

It should sound an alarm if there is no oil pumping. However, that can be pretty hard to hear if you're flying down the lake at 50mph+

Premix for peace of mind. Also, I think you're supposed to take the pump off/disable it. Someone will chime in and tell you if that is necessary.

thanks for the input so far... I'd like to just take the thing off, but I just the boat (my first boat) and I don't know how to do it. Would it be real hard to do?

I've had that same motor on the boat I bought 4 years ago and I've always used the oil resivor. It's never given me a problem but I'd like to know more also. I will say it's been a great running motor. knock on wood.

An 88 should be a VRO motor...the VRO was one of the best units available...the earlier 80's oil injection was not so good. The unit does have an alarm. All you have to do to take it off is undo the alarm wire and tape it up. Then cut the oil line where it comes into the motor and plug it off. This will keep the engine from ever sucking anything else into it.

Be SURE if you take it off that you mix 50:1 before you dismantle it. Let it run on muffs for a while with the oil injection intact...once you are smoking REALLY good...you know the premix gas is in the carbs...now you can dismantle it. This keeps you from having a gas only condition for a couple minutes which could and would be bad!

There have actually been VERY few incidents of an oil pump going bad and blowing a motor...many will say different...but its true. Most blow due to another reason. Many mechs just blamed it on the oil injection. That was the easiest thing to say. A motor would drop a cylinder then they'd say oil injection..well, thats impossible...it would blow the whole engine...the oil injection injects oil into the incoming gas...not into each individual cylinder. So a cylinder does not mean oil injection. Most VRO's are very good units...ecspecially the newer ones...well late 80's early 90's. You know there is something to be said about a pump that is still going strong after 20 years of service. Think about that...where will most of the new engines be in say 20 or 30 years??

More about VRO. Submitted by Seahorse - iboats Boating Forums

This is a very good article from iboats.com about the VRO....thought you might find it interesting.

I have a 60hp Merc with oil injection. My alarm will go off when I troll at idle speed with it for about 10 minutes. I have to speed up just a tad to get it to send enough oil to kill the alarm. I wish I knew how to make it idle as slow as possible without setting the alarm off.

CrappieReaper...are you sure its the oil alarm?? Reason I ask, ALOT of the merc/mariners will get hot when idling around...I guess there isn't quite enough volume at idle. I didn't catch what year yours is...but I know the 80's and 90's did. Some did, some didn't...but LOTS did. You cud bump them up some...and they'd cool back off...but idling real slow and they'd heat right up!

Might switch to premix if you are for sure its the oil...that would be cheap insurace...that buzzer goes off for some reason...its just a simple switch...temp or low oil get to a point, and it closes the circuit and beeps the beeper.

Originally Posted by Crappie Reaper

I have a 60hp Merc with oil injection. My alarm will go off when I troll at idle speed with it for about 10 minutes. I have to speed up just a tad to get it to send enough oil to kill the alarm. I wish I knew how to make it idle as slow as possible without setting the alarm off.

What year is it? Steady beep = overheating, Intermittant beep= oil.