so i have been reading lot in this forum and believe i might be in the right place. I have been upgrading my own heating system for several years now and think its time i delve into the burner side of things. I have a very complex hydronic heating system that is in a really old victorian house on long island. Basically it a 12 zone combnation of cast iron radiators and baseboard and radiant. Many maifolds and zone valves and circulators. Did a lot of research and am pretty happy wih the hyronic side of things. The burner is a Burhnam V7 with a RIELLO F5. Ok so heres the thing recently one of the fuel lines lossened and it got a small air leak. I think after to much priming before i discovered the leak the oil pump might have been damaged. It has started to make a unusal sound Kinda like it has spun a bearing or something. At the same time i feel like im burnng a exsessive amount of fuel. This leads me to the point that maybe its time I learned how to set up my burner myself and things like repairing or replacing the oil pump. Over the years have used many people to do it. Some come to clean the boiler an do a marginal job of vacuming and just change the nozzle. So it is time for me to learn how it should be done My question is what is the best resource for the tools that i will need and basic knowledge to get started. Look foward to some input. Thanks

Hi Folks: In my farm kitchen, I have two smallish iron radiators (hot water system) that I would like to replace with something else to free up the wall space and, of course, improve my heating process if possible. I am thinking about radiant in-floor with pex under the joists. The kitchen is 15 x 12 roughly. My dumb question: Is it possible to simply replace the radiator(s) with an equivalent length(s) of radiant (i.e. pex) piping without adding manifolds, pumps, mixing valves, etc.? Can you "in theory" go from the feed-side black radiator pipe to the radiant system, back to the outlet-side of the pipe system without alot of other valves or pumps? Again, assuming the radiant loop volume is equivalent to the radiator volume. Am I missing some plumbing and/or heating system magic here? I'm sure it's not that simple of an answer so here are more specifics if they help... I have a brand new Weil McClain CGI-4 nat gas boiler with new circ pump, expansion tank, air elimination valve, etc. sized properly for my house and heating it very well. Water temp is always between 90 and 135, pressure around 18-20 psi (two-story 1500 sf house). A recent energy audit by the gas company said we're operating pretty efficiently. No problems with the system - just the inefficiency of old-fashioned radiators taking up wall space in the room. Thanks for your help, Gurus!