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

Hello all,
I have been using an inherited waste oil burner for a few years now.  I have posted in previous years and people here were such a big help!  My unit is old.  very old.  a Clean Burn unit.  but it has been running good the last couple years since I rebuilt it.  it is a burner mounted onto a converted coal boiler.  Anyways, end of last year, I started having this random problem where it would just randomly shut itself on and off real quick.  like the whole thing lost power, then suddenly got power.  that problem manifested itself worse the beginning of this year, and I traced it to a bad controller - not a big deal, done.  But I actually moved my whole burner to a different spot in the room over the summer (lots of renovations in the furnace room including replacing my main soft coal boiler with a stoker)  Anyways, so the issue I am having now, is too much unburnt oil, when i shut it off and open up my unit the inside of my boiler is coated with oil - and the smoke out the flue is not clear like it usually is.  I thought I wasnt getting good spark, but my transformers tests ok (I can pull a real good spark with a screw driver) but my electrodes were pretty crappy, so I replaced them.  They are positioned right according to specs.  it is now running better (more consistently) but I still have unburnt oil.  I turned the oil pressure down a little lower than where I kept it last year, about 5psi or just below (last year around 6) but still no difference.  I am trying to figure this one out

Things that changed during the renovations
- using a different chimney
- possibly sucking a little more air (I havent adjusted the air inlet at all, but I see a few small gaps around it that I havent finished caulking) 

Would any of these effect it?  I thought too much air should not cause unburnt oil, but maybe i am wrong? 
I am going to caulk it more, today or tomorrow, But wanted to get the ball rolling with some opinions.  Thanks for the help!

tested the solenoid, it still works.   so installed it all again, and it is running fine at the moment.  not really sure why i was not getting any oil out the nozzle last night for that period of time.   i guess we will wait and see how it goes.    thanks for all your help!

also on a side note, it ran fine all last night.   hadn't done that in a while!  haha

i disconnected the solenoid after i noticed it getting hot.   
i guess i did not pay enough attention to the oil gauge to notice if it was bouncing or spiking or not.   it has been running OK now, plunger removed and solenoid disconnected.   i might have had it powered for a few minutes at one point while the plunger was not installed, maybe thats why it got hot?   (trying to remember the sequence of events)     is the solenoid no good anymore?  did i ruin it?   :/         Ok to let it run for now without the plunger in?   

i really appreciate all your help all the time!

So i started up the furnace this evening to get it going for tonight.  it fired right up, like usual, then it shut off after about 10 seconds and would not even come close to firing again.    eventually realized that there is no oil spraying.   my pump is on.  oil is coming out the line right before it goes into the regulator.   so i am guessing it is either the solenoid, or the regulator - which is brand new!   

questions are.....
1.  can i test the solenoid just by putting 120 volts to it, to see if it operates?   
2.  when i open the oil line, roughly how much/how fast should the oil be coming out?   mine comes out like a steady flow/stream, but there is not tons of pressure behind it....enough pressure to make a little arch in the oil stream.

Well, I did have some flu issues, I fixed those, and no more smoking out the boiler!  I got the air set to about 13psi and the oil set so the smoke is clear coming out the top.  It is running great!   

my only other question is, that piece that broke that i showed a picture of, the piece that opens or closes the air inlet to the fan (i fixed it, JB weld!)....how do i know how to adjust that?  when should it be opened more, or when should it be closed more?

So mostly good news....got it all back together, and it fired right up!!   sounds a lot different too, like whistling more.  not sure if thats just because its clean and working better or not...im not complaining, just commenting.   

so under normal circumstances, what should the air and oil pressures be set to?   

also, not sure why it would do this, or maybe its a different problem...but it seems to be smoking out of the furnace doors a lot more than it ever did before.   is that simply a draft issue, or could that be something else?  never had a draft problem.  is that just because its not really cold out yet and its not drafting hard like it will in the cold weather? 

Ok, how could it have been more simple?  i actually took every measure to make it as simple as possible i thought.  i welded up that bracket so the pump sat right by the top of the tank.  there is the filter, then it elbows right down to the bottom of the tank.  unless you are referring to my 3 piece union...i wanted a way to be able to remove either just the down pipe or the filter/pump without needing to remove them all as a unit.  that is the only junction of any pieces.   simpler how?

I have a different air filter regulator on it then what it came with, so i am guessing that I wont be using those pieces then.   

Ok so i have re-positioned the pump so it is right off the top of the tank, and the line comes up, through the cartridge filter, and right into the pump.   

I have started disassembly of the burner.  my disassembly questions so far are, 1. I can not find the location of the big O-ring, the flat rubber washer things, and that white screen.  2.  besides the small O-rings down inside which i see, do the solenoids need to be disassembled any further than this/is it possible to further disassemble, or just clean them out as they are like this shown in the picture.

thanks for all your help!