oil injection question

[sledgehammer]

I have a 87 evinrude 150, I was wondering how i can tell if the oil is being pumped to the motor. It has an audible alert that is supposed to let you know if the motor is not getting oil but I don't know if it is working correctly. When I tried to prime the bulb for the oil it won't depress. Like it has already been primed. Should the motor smoke a little if it is getting oil? I am used to mixing my own oil on my old outboard so that may explain my ignorance Thanks in advance for your help

[Nick B]

Im guessing if you ran the motor for more than a couple of minutes and it didnt blow up, then you are getting oil. The motor will smoke when it is cold.

[Ben]

If it's still running it's getting oil.  The alarm is not going to matter much anyway.  Usually by the time the no oil alarm sounds, the motor's already damaged to the point it's either locking up or knocking.  I will say, if it has the original pump still on it, it would pay you to replace.  In 99 they made some significant changes to that sytem and made it a whole lot more reliable than the early units.  The pump will cost you approx $300 to walk out the door with it and a little more for the labor if you have a mechanic install it.  Takes less than an hour to replace it.  You should also take the oil tank out, dump it and clean the pickup screen in the bottom.  Every oil tank I've taken out that was a few years old had water in the bottom.  I've seen this water get high enough to get into the system and destroy the motor.  I've got a 96 225 that just that thing happened to it.

On those older motors, a lot of people unplug the pump wire connector and connector going to the tank so the alarm doesn't sound and premix the oil in the gas tank.

[sledgehammer]

Thanks for the good info Ben.  I will definitely have that checked out!

[champ187xr6]

On My old boat (89) i just unhooked the pump and mix it myself. Many say when they get that old you are better off disconnecting the pump and mixing yourself. A little headache but cheap insurance.

[ernel]

You can also use a turkey baster to check for water in the oil reserve as well. Since the oil will float, the baster placed all the way to the bottom will pick up the water and leave the oil in the tank. Take a few samples from different locations in the tank as the water may be in different places depending on the amount of water present.