Old Oil furnace not burning off all of oil, pooling underneath boiler.

Hello, I recently did a tune up of my furnace as it wasn't starting.
it's a fairly old Iron Fireman Bottom burning Vortex style flame retention boiler.,

Pressure at pump is about 96PSI and no obstructions on path to the nozzle.

One nozzle I just put in it a few days ago .75 80W Delevan Lasted about 1 day before It stopped spraying all together, and meanwhile a Good deal of excess unburnt oil was dripping down the intake, and down the electrodes.

I've Bled the hell out of the system, and also vaccumed out the chamber as well as the burner tube, and checked the squirrel cage fan, there seem to be no obstructions there.

IF I increase the Airflow to the blower IT seems even less fuel gets burned, and if I decrease it, the flame drastically shrinks and the chamber starts to smoke like crazy.
The flame is Bright Orange in color.

I've also adjusted the electrodes so they are about 1/8th of an inch apart, and 1/8th of an inch above and from the nozzle opening.

 

The other thread? Seemed liked you blew the pump seal at the shaft. This one let me read it again quick. Older burners like 1/2 to 5/8 above 1/4 ish ahead and a big 1/8 wide if transf. is good.Maybe your cut off at the pump no good.Grady likes the older burners as he cut his teeth on low pressures maybe even pot belly stoves. You could find out where the old unit are being dumped and find a perfectly good pump with the same rotation.

 

That above is above the hole in the nozzle not the top of the nozzle.

 

ok, the Replacement nozzle has now Just started to die, it's intermittently spraying in bursts. I shut the furnace off and will just wait for my Type A to come I guess....

What could be causing the nozzles to fail other then possible bad batch? Filters are good and in place, flow/pressure seems fine.

 

maybe you got a worn coupling or bad pump.You say spraying in burst ,no flame? When was the last time the unit got a good vac. and brush and tune? THe unit breathing good? Just saw Grady, better and older man then me. Hopefully he got you covered.

 

I agree on the stong possibility of a worn/slipping pump coupling.
With an 80* nozzle, set the electode tips 7/16" above nozzle center, 1/16 to 1/8" ahead of the nozzle face, & a fat 1/8" apart.
When you change the nozzle you should flush the nozzle tube with a good solvent such as 2+2, carb cleaner, or something of the sort.

 

Good call on the 60* Grady,just kidding about the pot belly stove.http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...ilies/wink.gif

 

Only thing I haven checked yet is the Exhaust Piping, and the airflow duct that Y's to it, I'll take that apart and vac all of it tomorrow.

I've Allready backflushed the nozzle ASSY with WD-40

I re-bled the holy hell out of the system shortly ago and It's running , after tinkering with the Blower intake I'm only loosing about 1 TBSP /HR currently.

Perhaps something is indeed wrong with the coupling(is that the segment of piping directly connected to the pump before the tubing heading towards the nozzle?) . Whoever Installed it used some sort of hard, yellowish compound to seal the threads in place . I tried to take it off but It seemed more likely I'd crack the pump housing than remove it... It is Currently a steel pipe elbow that connects to a short segment of pipe, and then to a pressure fitting..

So it is very possible indeed that air is somehow getting in. I'm not sure how I'd separate it from the pump though given the bond strength.... (torch would be a very dumb idea LOL)
Should I perhaps try to encapsulate it further in epoxy?

 

Well, i think you guys are on to something. I was just reading a beckett guide to attempt to troubleshoot a bit of a pulsation it's also been giving.
In the middle of the guide in big bold print is NEVER USE A COMPRESSION FITTING IN AN OIL SYSTEM.

I'm wondering if that has been the cause of most of my trouble and intermittency.
For now ill try replacing the copper line with a freshly flared one as i may have bumped/damaged a flare and caused an air leak.

 

Guyold,
I knew you were just kiddin'. Can't say I've ever had to work on a pot belly but I've worked on more than a few pot burners (gravity fed space heaters) in my day. I might(?) be older but I wouldn't say any better. We each have our specialties.

 

ok, replaced the segment of copper piping from the pump to the nozzle. The old one had a small crack in one of the flares.

I'm no longer getting the bursts.

I'm back to troubleshooting the Excess oil dripping underneath as well as a Vibration/pulsation the furnace is producing while running.

Picture of pump and piping, the Flare fitting and copper tubing were replaced.

underneath the Boiler, The pie pan is where I'm getting oil underneath

Electrodes, I eyeballed the gap on them, After doing that the vibration isn't as strong as it was. However they occasionally get grime caked in between them and I have to brush it off before the furnace will start back up.
It's still kind of like a sub woofer at times. Also, you can see a pool of oil Towards the bottom of the chamber.


somehow the photo of the flame got inverted.

P.S. Furnace fuel makes for horrible perfume... Not as bad as differential fluid atleast.

 

Also, here is the gasket that I replaced (made new one from 1/32 Rubber fiber gasket material.
the tear is visible in the middle , left of the gasket.