Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

[trobinson017]

Hey all,

This forum is always my first stop when I have boating questions. Fantastic community support here!! Thanks as always.

I have two questions.

1. I have a bait well pump in the very back of my bilge, against the transom. Very tight spot to work in. Water is forced into it via a scupper-type fitting on the bottom of the hull. Anyway, this pump doesn't work and I've had some problems with it leaking water into the bilge at several points, mostly hose connections. I've taken care of those but am wondering, if the leaking is also at the hull fitting, I'm not sure where that is, I can't follow the feeder hose as it goes into the under-decking area. If I determine there is leaking there and can find it, is it an easy thing to plug up? I never use the bait well pump, just a bucket as it's a small bait well. So I don't need it, don't want it. I'd really like to just remove the darned thing but that's for another day.

2. My boat uses an oil injection system with an oil reservoir/tank in the same bilge area. I'd like to disconnect this and remove it as I'm getting nervous about the pump motor failing and thus no oil injection. There is an oil alarm but, again, I don't entirely trust it. I think it would be easier and less stress to just mix the oil myself. I use 2 5-gal gas containers and top it off before every trip so it almost stays full at all times. If I did remove it, I first need to know how to do it correctly. Then, I also need to know how to mix oil in with the existing gas. It's a 63 gal. tank. I thought at first I could remove the injector then pour oil into the gas filler. However, if my tank is almost full, how can I fit enough oil in to compensate? My engine, Johnson 130 Oceanpro, requires a 50:1 ratio. SHould I measure some oil in, run the engine for awhile, say on a short trip, then add more oil as I go? The more I think about this more jumbled and confused I get. Some advice would he helpful.

Sorry to be so long winded.

TIA!!


trob

 

[trobinson017]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

just testing my sig with this reply.

 

[NoKlu]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

I did a quick search and found this article on the VRO systems. There is quite a bit of info on this subject,including eliminating it,if you google it. http://continuouswave.com/whaler/reference/VRO.html. Hope this helps a bit.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

basically it is cutting and blocking the oil hose where it enters the cowl. remove the alarm plug wire from the oil side of pump, and remove alarm wire from the tank. Now you need to add oil to the existing fuel, 50:1 for the amount of fuel. that the trailer for a ride to mix gas, or rock the boat in the water.. Now disconnect the fuel line going to the carbs from fuel pump. pump the primer bulb, until you get BLUE Gas, oil colors the gas. reconnect fuel line, and off you go.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

1. If your boat was built to good engineering practices there should be a seacock on the intake. Close the seacock and be done with it if you so desire. If it doesn?t have a seacock you could plug the intake and hope for the best.

2. The oil system on that motor is very reliable. Why remove a convenience feature that works and is reliable? The last thing I feel like doing is fooling around with messy oil bottles and oil ratio calculations every time I want to use the boat. Its bad enough that I have to stop and fuel up every once and a while.

 

[trobinson017]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

2. The oil system on that motor is very reliable. Why remove a convenience feature that works and is reliable? The last thing I feel like doing is fooling around with messy oil bottles and oil ratio calculations every time I want to use the boat. Its bad enough that I have to stop and fuel up every once and a while.

The oil system has been working fine so far. I just get nervous that the pump may one day fail and I won't know it. The low oil alarm has worked in the past but is integrated into the speedometer along with other types of lights/alarms. The problem is my speedo doesn't always work. That's another issue; Of the 5 gauges I have, only 2 work; the battery voltage and the speedo. The tach stopped working shortly after I bought the boat 5 years ago. That doesn't bother me. The tilt gauge stopped working last year. Again, doesn't bother me. The gas gauge stopped working 2 years ago. It bugs me some but most of our boating is local and short distances so not a huge deal. The batttery and speedo stop working at the same time so I know there's something up with the wiring. I've inspected it all the way to the terminal block and everything looks fine. All fuses are good too. So not sure what's up. Sometimes it just takes stopping the motor, waiting a couple minutes, then cranking back up and those two gauges will work. Anyway, I digress.

The point is I'm not 100% confident of the alarms working if the pump fails. Since I have a routine of topping off the tank before every trip I'd rather just mix the oil myself and remove one worry from my lengthy list.

 

[trobinson017]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

Oops!! I erred; the warning lights/alarms are part of the tach, not the speedo. The tach itself doesn't register but when I start the engine the self-test beep sounds. So I guess that means all is well with the oil alarm too. Maybe I'm being paranoid? Dunno, but I've so many problems with this boat/engine I'm not yet 100% comfortable with it. However, with the more problems I have, the more I"m learning about the systems and how to fix them, thanks in large part to these forums.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

You have the same "Check System" that I do. Both oil alarms are checked for functionality everytime you turn the key.

I would venture to guess that overheating and carb problems account for 10 times more blown motors than oil delivery failures.

 

[trobinson017]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

You have the same "Check System" that I do. Both oil alarms are checked for functionality everytime you turn the key.

I would venture to guess that overheating and carb problems account for 10 times more blown motors than oil delivery failures.

Thanks for that bit of reassurance. I'm still not sure if I'll keep the injection system. As I mentioned before, I can't even see the oil level in the tank so I'm never sure how much is needed, I only read in the manual not to overfill it. I wonder if there's a float in the tank and a fitting to wire up a level gauge? That would help a lot.

 

[dingbat]

Re: Two questions: bait well pump and oil injector

You have an oil level sensor in the oil tank that is part of the check system test. I also have a oil level gauge on the dash although the oil tank is under the rear seat and a visual inspection is quite easy.

I have the 3 gallon oil tank so one tank of oil will cover the contents of both of my fuel tanks (147 gallons) if I'm running offshore. For normal usage I'll go 7or 8 trips between oil fill-ups.