Hello. Long time lurker that now needs assistance. I know I should be giving a professional a call, however I want to see if there's anything I can do before going down that road. Money is tight. The boiler is old - I found documentation that it may have been installed in 1950 or 1952 (the writing is faded), and is a U.S.-11 Series Capitol Gas Boiler by the United States Radiator Corporation. Anyway, woke up today and the upstairs of our small Dutch Colonial home is cold (1 and 1/2 story). Go downstairs - the dining and living rooms are cold as well. The rooms with hot pipes are the bathroom, downstairs bedroom/computer room, and kitchen (all seem to be on the same pipeline. It seems that they are all directly connected to the same pipe as the Thrush Control Valve). There is only one radiator, and it's in the kitchen. I searched every single other pipe, and none of them have bleed valves. So if i"m up against some sort of air-in-the-pipe issue, I'm not sure what to do. Anyway here is the picture gallery: [url=http://imageshack.us/g/843/dsc2886.jpg/]ImageShack Album - 11 images[/url] A few notes about the pictures: 1. Thermostat is set to 68. 2. The 4th picture is the pipe coming out of the boiler that leads to the thrust control valve. Very hot. 3. For the 7th picture (the return pipes... right?) Top valves are closed (clockwise), bottom valves are open (counterclockwise). 4. 8th picture - Clearly the pump has seen better days. It doesn't seem to make any sound, and I do wonder if it is functioning properly. It has never been noisy, though, so I cannot tell you what it sounds like. The rubbermaid tub is on the floor for two reasons: a friend of a friend suggested draining everything entirely, and so there is some dripping from the spigots. Also, at the bottom, the red relief valve (the one on the right) has always had a bit of a slow drip, which my home inspector said was "normal." Oh how happy I am to have bought a house in 2007 (I regret it every day). And oh how I feel so stupid for being so uninformed and naive. 5. 9th picture is the tank hoisted to the celing. It is cold to the touch. 6. Wanted to show the pressure gauge after it has been running for a few hours (thermostat picture was taken a minute later. So, that's about it. I drained the entire system. I bled the only radiator. If I open up the spigots to the first and second return pipes (the cold ones), hot water does start to flow out, but the respective pipes in the house are not hot. Makes me think it isn't being "pushed" to those. Sorry if this is long-winded. I wanted to be as detailed as possible in case this could help anyone diagnose my troubles. Thank you for reading.

Here is a short video of the flame in my boiler. Can you tell me if it looks normal. Is the flame supposed to be licking the bottom of the boiler water jacket, I presume the flame should not contact the boiler surfaces. It seems to be leaving deposits. It is hard to see through the inspection port so I can't tell what it is. Boiler is a NTI NY-151 with a system bypass set wide open to ensure the boiler return temp is as high as possible. Burner is a Riello Mectron 5M downfired to a 0.85 80B nozzle from 1.00 80B. Turbulator is set to 2 per set up doc for the Mectron. NTI doc calls fo an 80 degree nozzle while the Riello doc calls for a 60 degree. Draft is at -0.04 at the breech and overfire, measured through the inspection port, is -0.02. I haven't come across a smoke spot tester yet but I set the air for 12% CO2 with my meter. Temp at breech is around 380 degrees F. Outdoor reset is installed and thermostat is set to a cycle rate of 3. Temp in the house is an almost rock solid 68 degrees F with outdoor temp in low to mid 20's. I'm concerned the deposits will harm the boiler, any way I can prevent the deposits? Such as a different size nozzle or spray pattern? [url=http://s1233.photobucket.com/albums/ff383/billhillier/?action=view¤t=BurnerflameJan42012.mp4]BurnerflameJan42012.mp4 video by billhillier - Photobucket[/url]