Any oil burner techs in here??

[Dirtcrasher]

I have always gotten by with a cleaning every few years and do the rest myself.

The rest means filter @ tank, pump filter and screen and new nozzle.

Seems like every friggen time I buy a nozzle, they tell me I need a different one....

For those that don't know, the nozzle is just like a jet and atomonizes the fuel being burn't.

For 2 days, I am loading up with fuel, I believe they try 3 or 4 times and then lock out. So when you hit the reset but black smoke (unburnt fuel) comes out of every opening in the exhaust.......

My biggest questiojn is, what could these symptoms be? plugged nozzle?

And does the "eye" see the flame maintain burning or does it initiate it when it sees a spark?

I added a notch of air with the Beckett burner thinking maybe I have incomplete burning going on. I hate paying to have stuff fixed thats fairly simple!

Anyhow, it's all spotless now but I have to take the nozzle apart and clean it and at least try something, it's Sunday which is not a good day for a service call.............

Any help would be fantastic!

[Vealmonkey]

The eye sees the burning flame, the spark is initiated in the light off sequence and they are totall seperate. If the eye doesn't see the flame it shuts down the fuel pump usually depending on the type of burner you have. Do they keep giving you a larger nozzle or smaller one? Larger is usually worse. Be careful as sooner or later you will end up having an excess of oil in the bottom of your burner and it will keep burning after shutting down which isn't so bad or you will get a hiccup and it will all flash off which isn't good at all. When it hiccups like that, it often doesn damage to your refractory in your burner which isn't good. Also it often makes your burner way more inefficient and you burn or waste more oil. Try to get me some more info on your make and model of burner and I'll pass the info to my buddy who is a heating and ac man and he'll get you straightened out for sure. I'm just an amateur when it comes to the home units, I'm more use to running boilers that are several stories tall and burn thousands of gallons of oil and hour.

[Dirtcrasher]

Hey VM; Well, everything is finally cleaned and spotless. I found pitting on the end of the electrodes (which I ground flat) and they weren't set right, when I finally figured out how to read the gauge it seemed that they were way off..........

The inside fins were FILTHY!! Gotta be careful of that firebox though or your in deep do do........

The nozzles they give me merely have a different spray pattern but why they can't nail down one is beyond me; I should have saved the 1st one ever removed!! Parts counter guys are NOT TECHS!!

Running smooth now, no soot, and no smoke when I look inside during the burn.......

I still have to pay a guy to set it up correctly, I simply cannot measure CO, CO2 and stack temperature. They can also check oil pump pressure but I'm betting thats just fine.........

All I have is a 120K BTU boiler and a beckett AFG burner. Beckett# 5A55GYKPA-5733. Catalog# - 2456, Serial # 981016-82966.

I just hope it runs for awhile, it's getting warmer everyday so I just hope time passes.................

[Vealmonkey]

Well, just make sure the flames aren't hitting on the insides of your refractory and you should be ok. When the flames hit the sides, that's called impingement and it's not good for the firebox. If you have any cracks in your refractory, then either the oil or the flames will find them and start intruding into them and it will cause your boiler to fail.

[Dirtcrasher]

Thank you, you just reminded me of when and old school guy said "make sure the flame isn't so long that it's hitting the box!

Whats funny is that it doesn't appear to be a box, it appears to be a few pieces of fireproof material jammed into place

I will get this followed up on with a reputable tech, just to be sure. Sometimes trying to know everything is a futile battle!!

As long as she runs until I get the tech here, all will be well.......

The amount of unburnt fuel and smoke scared the sh!t out of me today. Incomplete burning causes CO (Carbon Monoxide) and can kill me and all my pets during one night while we sleep.

Thats why most people should never touch this stuff!! Except me J/K Unless I quit posting, then you'll know what happened I leave my trikes to Roy,John and Mikey Ross can have some stainless fastners and all the lubricants. The equipment goes to Jeff but he has to transport it!! The backhoe should be enough $$ to bury me................ A pine box is fine guys....

[Dirtcrasher]

Seems to be running like a charm......

I still have to get it all checked out, but I believe I figured out the setting gauge. Once I get a tech here, I'll try and pick his brain.

What gets me is not even a simple call back today (left 2 phone numbers) when I said the house filled with smoke; No black smoke (unburnt fuel) now though.... Just 5 minutes on the phone would have been nice. Apparently, they don't need the work. I know it's been some time, but this company has done my clean out a couple times and taken care of at least 10 or more direct family members. Thanks guys..............

Gas runs so efficient that it never needs cleaning. But oil can get all plugged up to the point it won't vent even with a power vent (which is where I felt I was at) and someone has to check the fuel/air mixture and the stack temp etc. I would have tried doing some plug chops, but it was too heavy to get out of my basement

It didn't frighten me away from trying, I don't have the $$ to deal with a knucklehead!

[3wheelmecca]

Damn, DC, you can do burner stuff too? Anything you can't do? I had an oil burner in my house and was put in in 1909 when they built my house. We had to cut it apart with a cutting torch to get it out of the basement in about 10 pieces. The tank was disconnected when we moved in, put a dye stick down, and voila! Off Road Diesel! Don't know how it got there, but was fairly fresh. We ran that in our Modded Cummins for 2 years.
Are there a lot of oil burner powered homes where you live? Very little here in CO.

[Dirtcrasher]

^ I'm not sure how old you are; But you'll learn very quickly that you have to be able to fix 95% of anything that can fail......

Life is just so expensive and I guess living in MASS is a problem too....... Most people suk, but the ones I care about I hold onto tight!

If I can't fix it, I learn how.

Last night the power exhaust died. A neutral wire came loose but it should have stopped the burn and it didn't which concerns me. Maybe this explains why it had so much soot built up inside, it was working on and off.

Running well now, just dealing with the flooding were having now; It's terrible!!

[3wheelmecca]

I am pretty young, and am trying to be a jack of most trades. I mainly do motorcycles, but have moved to oilfield and welding/machining/ fabbing. I am trying to get ceritfied, damn near impossible.
I just want to make my parents proud.
You have very good advice DC, thank you.

[jeffatc250r]

Steve, I chased a phantom around for about a month here. Puking smoke, hardly running. It would run so rich that it plugged up the heat catching fingers up top. Then it would run fine for a day or 2. Long story short it was the transformer. Talked to a tech and he said that these new transformers are only good for a few years? Everything you buy is a pos it seems. He also said to arc it out with a screwdriver, blue spark is good, yellow is bad, sure enough I had a yellow arc. Got a new transformer and its been purring like a kitten for a cpl months. I only use it for hot water, but nothing sucks more than to not be able to take a shower.

[Dirtcrasher]

Good point on the t-former, they produce a MASSIVE spark..................

I need a tech to check the levels and I'll ask him about that T-former, I can replace that puppy like cooking a chicken - nothing to it!!

So I liven it up and make the spark jump? I can do that, no biggie.........

That f-n power exhaust is wired in wrong. It should close a switch from vacuum to a relay and then allow the burner to run; I'll get it in time (as long as I don't die in the process).

Sometimes the techs are dumb as a stump.....I'd rather do it myself!

Thanks Jeff!! When it rains it POURS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!