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Joz,
I have a 95 Johnson 70H.P that has had the VRO pump disconnected. They were notorious for failing and scoring cylynder walls on the motors as the engine alarms either never went off or went off too late. Any Johnson Dealer will be familiar with this problem and will put in a standard mechanical fuel pump with no oil pump for about $250.00 including the bracket which must be fabricated. The first issue you might have would be if you had any cylynder damage when the pump was failing. Time for a compression test and even to have the cylunders scoped as a, "squashed" piston that will have eratic timing symptoms may not be low on compression. If the cylynders check out, the second issue is the design of the VRO system itself. The VRO is a variable oil injection system that pumps oil in at idle to 20:1 and then adjusts as high as 50:1 at high rpm. That is one reason a converted VRO engine will always run smotther at high rpm's rather than idling around. It is running too rich at idle but you cant lean out the 50:1 mixture or you willoil starve at speed. You can replace the VRO pump with a new one as the rebuilds and rebuild kits are also notorious for failing, or have the motor retuned by a good outboard mechanic to minimize the bad effects at idle and just live with it.