On Thu, 20 Jan 2011 22:02:23 -0500, Tony Miklos
wrote:
.....

For now ....

I also should say that the acrid smell I Posted about a few days ago,
and the smoke I saw curling from either side of oil burner, I solved
too.

I looked inside the burner housing, which opens up by lifting the big
ignition transformer which has hinges on one side, and which has to be
lifted to replace the nozzle. No holes to the outside there.

And back outside the burner, because the burner was partly in the way,
I never could see a hole in the "wall" of the furnace below the
burner. If the burner is a clock, I can see to from about 8 o'clock
over the top to 3 or 4 o'clock.

So I decided to patch it without seeing it. I found furnace cement
at Home Depot but only in a half-gallon bucket. I had seen it
mentioned on the web in caulking tubes. Way at the other end of the
store in the paint department were 2 products by 3M, fire block and
fire barrier. In caulking tubes.

The "wall", I mentioned, the outside of the furnace, not counting the
decorative cover that hides the burner, actually doesnt' get hot, I
finally learned, afraid to touch it all these years, so I used fire
barrier, put a big glob on a paint-mixing stick/paddle, the ones they
give free with paint, and smeared it on almost as widely and as thick
as I could get it. It only took a little bit to do that, 5 or 6
tablespoons. It still smoked right after that, but I had only waited
an hour to start the furnace and that might have been some part of the
still not fully dry fire barrier. Doesn't smoke anymore, and that
smell is gone.


I know if I called a repairman he would do pretty much the same thing,
after charging me for a cleaning, nozzle, alignment of electrodes, all
of which had recently been done, and after trying to get me to buy a
new furnace now from him, instead of waiting for the summer. Plus I
woudldn't have learned anything except how to pay someone to do things
for me.