Oil Pump Problem?

Hey guys, I fished Dale last weekend with only one fish on a shiner but my motor kept alarming saying I was out of oil. I run a Johnson FastStrike 150 and the oil tank was full. A guy told me to put oil directly into the gas and run it just in case. I was thinking the oil could have been just too thick to be picked up. It was 2 degrees when I left home, 20 degrees when I put in. I did pump the oil bulb but this didn't seem to help. Any suggestions on what the problem could be. I'm going to try to put it in the water on a warm day and see if I still get the alarm or could I run it with the muffles on the motor with the hose and find out anything? I don't want to blow up my motor, any help is appreciated. Thanks, Gobbler

The oil could be gelled up. Take your oil tank out and empty out to see the condition of the oil also there is a screen on the pick-up in the botttom of the tank, check it out make sure not clogged up. also check all of the oil line connections from the tank to the fuel pump on the motor. I had a small air leak at a connection that made the alarm go off on mine (same Motor)

You could also disconnect the oil line at the engine and pump the oil line bulb to make sure there are no air bubbles in the line (have a container to catch the oil)

Other possibility is fuel/oil pump is bad.

There is a good chance that the oil was too thick to flow properly through the oil lines, which sent you alarm off. The real problem is if you ran the motor for anytime without oil in the gas, you may have done major damage to your pistons. You need to do a compression check. If everything checks out, then mix oil in your gas until you get the problem solved..good luck

i have ran my evinrude intruder and my 200 johnson in cold temps like that,it will still pick up the oil.the problem is that you may have water in your oil tank
it will freeze up.i would dump the tank, clean it out blow out the lines and refill,a said in the post before if you run it long you could have scored your cylender walls and damged the rings and bearings,you can get a pin lite and peek in the cylender through the plug hole,the scars usually start at the exhaust port.

My 95 mariner 150 started the alarm last sping and found out the gear in the motor that drives the pump was bad. It was going to be pretty expensive to replace so i had it disconnected and just mix my own gas now. The main thing is if you want to test it agin I would be sure to mix oil in your gas so you don't do any or more damage to your motor. If the pump is a problem I think the alarm should still go off.

Thanks everyone for the great advise. I hope I didn't run it long enough to do any damage. I always shut it down when the alarm when off. I probably drove 2 miles starting and stopping this way.

Make sure it is your pump first, because last year I was on cherokee and the same happened to me. I was so upset. I idled into the dock and put oil in the little tank on the motor and the buzzer went off but after letting it idle for a few minutes there was still no oil coming back into the tank on motor from the big tank in boat. I thought I had a pump going down but I loosened the oil cap on the boat where you fill the big tank and it started working perfect. The people at the marina said it was just air locked. I haven't had a problem since. So from tome to time I just take the cap off before I go fishing so it won't happen again.

there is a small oil holding reservoir at your motor with a float under the cap. when the float is low the alarm sounds. if you ran the boat with the oil close to empty and then filled up your oil tank you also need to fill the resevoir or it will keep happening also the float can and will stick. you can solve this usually with a rag soaked in wd-40 and wiping the float arm. hope this helps......joe

I lost an engine that way once.

On EVERY boat I have owned since then, I've disconnected the oil injection system as soon as I got the boat. Mixing oil into the gas is very simple, and it's fool proof. If it's getting gas, then it's getting oil.