Waste Oil Heater Forum - Your definitive source for burning waste oil for heat.

Disclaimer:  I be not from here.
What I wonder could be here somewhere.  If so, please forgive asking repeat questions.  This only looks long.  Don't be fooled by all the print.  Some speculation is expected.

Thanks, up-front . . . I am extremely grateful for any & all information and/or helpful suggestions you share.

You built & tested & trouble-shot one, so I ask about the potentially boring details.  That was a year & 1/2 ago.  I read a few things you wrote in the between, but not much definitive.  Is it burning clean & hot now?  Post any pictures I missed?  What's your MPG?
Is the machine you built copied from the 1ST or 2ND TMEN burner?  Or is it like Spike's with the fire hung outside?
 - (With 2 TMEN, Spike, Roger Sanders, and Ozzirt burners, plus the others out there, I need a smidgeon more clarity.)

Near Chattanooga, huh?  It do get cold there.

What was the fuel rich thing, and what was the fix?  Too little combustion air, coupled with incomplete mixing would make sense.  My truck smoked white-gray & lost power (big time) when the air filter clogged.  It sure did pour black smoke, burning the fuel coating when it got a new K&N.  WVO has to be 150F+ before introducing it to the flame or it soots & coke badly.

I'm surprized the rather short funnels (intake, over the burner - right?) works as well as they do.  If yours is longer, it should only improve the swirl, burn, etc.  Aerodynamics.
The Headers by Ed website has a ton of data explainin' the theory better than I do.  That intake pipe is an air plenum.  Flow tolerates gradual changes far better than ripples, roughness, and abrupt angles.

That oil pump idea is whiz-bang.  I be likin' that & the power steering pump, right much.  I needed them last winter.  Wait a minute while I tell my brother.

There are portions of the burner I don't understand, yet, mostly from lack of information.  These are a bit different than the ones sold in 1970.  Your burner is entirely within the tank, where the fire is contained.  Right?  How tall are the sides of the lowest pot?  Ya think a cast iron Dutch oven would be useful, or too tall to burn correctly?  I want to contain the oil in the event of too much oil at the wrong time.

Cool observation.  The wind does blow water through the blocks, sorta.  (There's a long word for it.  Something like hydro-graphic or hygrographic - sounding like hydrostatic).  A little extra pressure on one side pushes the water as it pulls itself into tiny passages in the porous block.
O my, the end.  Thanks again, Ryan.
 - Ron

Run it through a propane tank or two as part of the stack.

Where's the penny coin slot on this thing?

Now, NIK,
 You know they don't like it when you display that bad attitude about their throttle-hold on citizens.

• One of my slow-downs (aren't there always?) on this massive project was how to handle the insurance companies who happily take money to insure open fireplaces, but refuse non-furnace oil heat.
  Ding!  Incorporate it into a superinsulated outdoor high-mass wood-fired heater.  Plans sold intermittently for 30 years by TMEN called it a H.A.H.S.A. (Heating And Heat Storage Apparatus).
  Not "trendy" enough, less efficient mass-produced units are now "outside boilers".
  Not enough time before winter, just put a dripper in the livingroom and burn waste oil collected for my truck.
  Lacking enough accessible experience & information dragged it into another year.

Then I found this forum . . .
Ready.  Set.  GO!

O goody-goody, I can finally help.
World famous J. C. Whitney (or nearly any parts emporium) carries universal automotive floats for fuel tanks.  The bountiful size of a tank from a big truck (beep! beep!) might require modifying it, or finding one for a similar rig.
    Most require mere milli-amps of 12V to 14V DC, and are "plug & play" - available as close as your nearest 120V AC to 12V DC transformer.  It's far less complicated than a Waste Oil Heater.
    Merely run juice from the positive lead through a relay to control the pump, then through the float switch to ground.  You might even tie it to a fuel level gauge, too.    Way cool.  If your pump is AC, please be sure you use a relay rated to accept a DC signal and control an AC line voltage.  I think that's called a PID relay, but memory fogs.

Happy trails,

We spent a week below 20f not long ago.  Heck the neighbors beagle dogs was over here looking for booster cables so the jump start em a rabbit

Yo, TECHDIF,
With humour like that, we'll get along fine.
Hmm, that puts you somewhere in the rolling hills - near Gatlinburg.  You ain't far from the mountains.

Thanks, RUSS.
In some cases, I intentionally ignored the time spans of posts, in hopes to stir some of that meaningful dialogue before winter.
Not all boards function or operate the same, so if I step on a toe or two, just let me know - such be not my intent.  Like most folk, I'm here to find (and share) information.

There were a couple questions bridging topics, but at the moment ... uh, what was it?
Hmm.

That be a really great find ya got there, STUBBORN66.

A 7-Gallon tank in the heat?  Cool.
  1 cu ft = 7.48 gallons
I agree with your supposin' 'bout the safeties.  There be a ton of good reasoning there.
 That switch in the second pot - is that a float switch of some sort?
 I likes the thermocouple to on/off the pump.
  Can you tell anything about the relay to which it would connect?
 Would you share the rough dimensions of the cast iron burner pan in the bottom?
 What's the fuel consumption on that puppy?

Thanks

Did everyone leave while I was in the head?

KOOLKRIS -
 If you have time, I'd really like to see & hear detail of your stove.
 What's your typical fuel consumption?
 My 1960s Perfection Micro Pilot appears similar to the picture fireitup posted.

FIREITUP -
 I saw your stove on-screen elsewhere, maybe last winter.
 Glad you found some data to help.

Thanks, guys