I've written on here about our oil fired Magic Chef furnace and how we do not get good
flow from the in ground tank when it gets below half full. Tank was topped up about a week ago and last night both burners locked out. It was due for a tune up so I changed the filter and nozzle on the furnace. Primed it and it would not clear up, looks like there is air in the flow. Let the container stand over night and there was about half an inch of water in the bottom.

Not sure what to do, furnace runs a bit but stops and tries to restart then locks out again.

Very concerned that we need a new tank and worried about getting ripped off.

I'll hope that it isn't the tank but I'm wondering how do we run the system while they are putting in a new tank?

 

You can run it off of temporary fuel cans while it’s getting replaced.
The old tank must be decommissioned/removed per epa guidelines.
Sounds like you may have a rotten dip tube.

 

I wired the motor to a plug in order to see if it would clean up after pumping a couple gallons - I know wishful thinking!
We are getting half oil and half water the third gallon did not look any better than the first.
Now what?

 

How old is this tank?
The big risk is the tank is leaking water in, and oil out.
If so, your cleanup costs may be significant.

 

It is 30 years old and located in a spot with a lot of ground water - something I did not
think of as a concern all these years.

 

Tanks probably rotted and leaking then.
You’ll want to verify quickly as you could be held responsible for cleanup.

 

Should I call our oil company or specialists on removing tanks?

 

I’d probably call the oil company. They can pump the tank out and possibly get you set up with a temporary fuel source.
The system should be gone over well. Water can cause damage.

 

That's not good news. The tank should never be in any water.
I agree..... call your oil company first.... ASAP.

 

The guy came out and used a stick to determine that there's about 6" of water or 50 to 70 gal, he also said that the cap was the wrong type that it should have an o-ring.

I remember 5 or 10 years ago that the fill cap was below the grass roughly flush with the ground or maybe an inch below. I called the oil company and they said oh we can add an extension, so they added about 2" of pipe it is now flush with the top of the grass when it is cut.

The service guy came and said that the cap is not the right type and doesn't have an
o-ring, he says it could have just leaked in from snow and whatever.

We are going to pump out the water and see how it goes.

 

At 30 years old and in a wet location I’d be looking at a new above ground tank.
Oil cleanup can get VERY expensive.
Did the tech test the tank at all for leaks?
You can put a (very) small amount of pressure in a empty tank with plugged vent and feed lines and see if it holds.

 

Tech was not of much help other than to say that the cap should have an o-ring.
I think we need to call some tank experts out.
I was thinking of installing an in basement tank, pumping oil from outside into the
new tank, then leaving the old tank dry until we sell the house.
Alternative to in basement tank would be gas since the furnace and AC are also 30 years old.

 

It is running fine now since they pumped out the water.

The question is if this was just 20 years of accumulation, I didn't know that so
much water would be tolerated in the tank for so long, or if it entered suddenly.
I believe that the feed pipe sits about 5-6" above the bottom providing that depth for some tolerance to water. When our water level became high enough to reach the feed pipe we then got mostly water.