Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous owner)
that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck going by outside
the house), and spews gray/black smoke from what normally is the air inlet
vent on the pipe that leads to the chimney. I have had a couple furnace guys
over and they shrug their shoulders and say that unless it does it while
they are there they don't know what it could be. I have had the boiler
cleaned and the nozzles replaced. One of the guys said if he had to take a
guess it might be sludge buildup in the oil tank, so I tried some sludge
remover additive that I found at home depot. I figure that stuff is probably
snake oil anyway, but it was pretty cheap so I figured I'd give it a go.
Didn't really seem to do much. The repair guy stated that some sludge could
be making its way to the nozzle that would then starve the combustion of the
oil, this then causing the problem. So how do I make this stop?

The oil tank is in the basement and there is a copper line from the oil tank
to the boiler. Would cleaning the line out help, or just replacing it? The
tank looks old, and has some exterior rust, not a lot though. Could there be
a lot of sludge buildup in the tank itself? The boiler works fine most of
the time, but it does this every other day or so during the winter while it
is running on a regular basis. I am in CT so it only runs right now for hot
water. It happened to do it again a few days ago (hadn't done it for a long
time), and it got me thinking about it and how to get it fixed. I'd like to
try to get this problem fixed before the fall/winter hits us.

thank you,

Mark

--
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness"
- Mark Twain

If the "furnace guy" thought it may be a sludge issue originating at the
tank, did he bother to check the filter? Has anyone checked the filter? If
there is in fact sludge in the tank it will be in the filter also. Did
anyone check delivery pressure when they were standing there looking at it,
for diagnostics sake? Most, not all, but most service providers are not
equiped or adequately trained to diagnose oil problems. Find a specialist,
guarantee he will find the problem.
"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...
Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous owner)
that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck going by
outside
the house), and spews gray/black smoke from what normally is the air inlet
vent on the pipe that leads to the chimney. I have had a couple furnace
guys
over and they shrug their shoulders and say that unless it does it while
they are there they don't know what it could be. I have had the boiler
cleaned and the nozzles replaced. One of the guys said if he had to take a
guess it might be sludge buildup in the oil tank, so I tried some sludge
remover additive that I found at home depot. I figure that stuff is
probably
snake oil anyway, but it was pretty cheap so I figured I'd give it a go.
Didn't really seem to do much. The repair guy stated that some sludge
could
be making its way to the nozzle that would then starve the combustion of
the
oil, this then causing the problem. So how do I make this stop?

The oil tank is in the basement and there is a copper line from the oil
tank
to the boiler. Would cleaning the line out help, or just replacing it? The
tank looks old, and has some exterior rust, not a lot though. Could there
be
a lot of sludge buildup in the tank itself? The boiler works fine most of
the time, but it does this every other day or so during the winter while
it
is running on a regular basis. I am in CT so it only runs right now for
hot
water. It happened to do it again a few days ago (hadn't done it for a
long
time), and it got me thinking about it and how to get it fixed. I'd like
to
try to get this problem fixed before the fall/winter hits us.

thank you,

Mark

--
"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness"
- Mark Twain

Mark Holbrook wrote:

Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous owner)
that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck going by outside
the house), and spews gray/black smoke ...

Does it also say "I think I can, I think I can, ..." ?

"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...
Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous owner)
that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck going by
outside the house), and spews gray/black smoke from what normally is the
air inlet vent on the pipe that leads to the chimney. I have had a couple
furnace guys over and they shrug their shoulders and say that unless it
does it while they are there they don't know what it could be.

SNIP

Sounds like late ignition to me. Burner comes on, sprays quite a bit of oil
into the fire box and then lights. Could be a number of things:

Like Mr. Berlin says: Oil filter could be clogged.

pump strainer (if it has one) could be clogged (big culprit that a lot of
techs overlook)

Pump may not be delivering the requires PSI (did they check it with a guage?
Could show if the filter or the strainer is stopped up OR the pump is bad)

Transformer could be weak (sometime when they start to go bad they are
sporadic)

Could be a hairline crack in one of the porcelains (this causes the spark to
arc on the nozzle assembly instead of at the ends of the electrodes)

The electrodes could be set wrong (spark will arc ON the nozzle)

Wrong size nozzle

True, you can run into one that will not do it 99 times in a row and then on
the hundreth time you got Choo Choo Charlie.

Unless you have a contraxt with the shoulder shruggers, you may want to try
another company. Explain to them what it is doing and let them go from
there....

"Anthony Berlin" wrote in message
. ..
If the "furnace guy" thought it may be a sludge issue originating at the
tank, did he bother to check the filter? Has anyone checked the filter? If
there is in fact sludge in the tank it will be in the filter also. Did
anyone check delivery pressure when they were standing there looking at
it,
for diagnostics sake? Most, not all, but most service providers are not
equiped or adequately trained to diagnose oil problems. Find a specialist,
guarantee he will find the problem.

Yes, I'm sorry, I forgot to mention that they did replace the filter at the
tank. It was pretty clogged up, but at the time when the filter was
replaced, that being December of 2004, I had only been in the house 6 months
and had no idea when the previous owner had the filter replaced. The repair
guy did not check the pressure though. I will make sure to keep that in mind
when I get someone out to look at it in the near term.

thanks for the advice...

Mark

"Dr. Hardcrab" wrote in message
news:j6PNe.5748$xp.3259@trnddc02...

"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...
Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous
owner) that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck going
by outside the house), and spews gray/black smoke from what normally is
the air inlet vent on the pipe that leads to the chimney. I have had a
couple furnace guys over and they shrug their shoulders and say that
unless it does it while they are there they don't know what it could be.

SNIP

Sounds like late ignition to me. Burner comes on, sprays quite a bit of
oil into the fire box and then lights. Could be a number of things:

Like Mr. Berlin says: Oil filter could be clogged.

pump strainer (if it has one) could be clogged (big culprit that a lot of
techs overlook)

Pump may not be delivering the requires PSI (did they check it with a
guage? Could show if the filter or the strainer is stopped up OR the pump
is bad)

Transformer could be weak (sometime when they start to go bad they are
sporadic)

Could be a hairline crack in one of the porcelains (this causes the spark
to arc on the nozzle assembly instead of at the ends of the electrodes)

The electrodes could be set wrong (spark will arc ON the nozzle)

Wrong size nozzle

True, you can run into one that will not do it 99 times in a row and then
on the hundreth time you got Choo Choo Charlie.

Unless you have a contraxt with the shoulder shruggers, you may want to
try another company. Explain to them what it is doing and let them go from
there....

Wow, that is a lot of possibilites, I will make sure to print this out and
ask each of these querstions of the person that I have come out to take a
look at this. I very much appreciate your thorough response.

Thanks!

Mark

Give us an update once they correct it....

"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...

"Dr. Hardcrab" wrote in message
news:j6PNe.5748$xp.3259@trnddc02...

"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...
Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous
owner) that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck going
by outside the house), and spews gray/black smoke from what normally is
the air inlet vent on the pipe that leads to the chimney. I have had a
couple furnace guys over and they shrug their shoulders and say that
unless it does it while they are there they don't know what it could be.

SNIP

Sounds like late ignition to me. Burner comes on, sprays quite a bit of
oil into the fire box and then lights. Could be a number of things:

Like Mr. Berlin says: Oil filter could be clogged.

pump strainer (if it has one) could be clogged (big culprit that a lot of
techs overlook)

Pump may not be delivering the requires PSI (did they check it with a
guage? Could show if the filter or the strainer is stopped up OR the pump
is bad)

Transformer could be weak (sometime when they start to go bad they are
sporadic)

Could be a hairline crack in one of the porcelains (this causes the spark
to arc on the nozzle assembly instead of at the ends of the electrodes)

The electrodes could be set wrong (spark will arc ON the nozzle)

Wrong size nozzle

True, you can run into one that will not do it 99 times in a row and then
on the hundreth time you got Choo Choo Charlie.

Unless you have a contraxt with the shoulder shruggers, you may want to
try another company. Explain to them what it is doing and let them go
from there....

Wow, that is a lot of possibilites, I will make sure to print this out and
ask each of these querstions of the person that I have come out to take a
look at this. I very much appreciate your thorough response.

Thanks!

Mark

OK, took a long time for an update on this, but we ended up getting the
problem fixed - since my posts in the end of August the problem seemed to
just go away, then it reappeared a week or so ago in full force - turns out
that the transformer was bad, as you suggested! We had it replaced and no
more "Choo Choo Charlie" rumbling and puffing of smoke anymore, which is
definitely a good thing.

So, now that that problem is fixed, I have noticed a new one upon inspecting
the handywork of the repairman that was out to fix the original problem.

I noticed a slight sizzling/hissing noise, even when the boiler was off. The
boiler also acts as a hot water heater with the use of a coil, which the
previous owner had replaced when I bought the house in July of '04. There is
a square metal plate on the upper right hand corner of the front of the
boiler that has the inlet and outlet pipes for the cold and hot water into
and out of the coil. There is a noticeable small drip of water coming from
the left hand side of the gasket on that square down the front of the
boiler. It has been going on long enough such that there is rust and the
paint has peeled away from the area where the drip meanders its way down the
front of the boiler. It then collects on a larger square plate where the oil
pump interfaces with the boiler itself. It was around here where the
sizzling was happening.

So now what should I do? I presume the drip is originating inside the metal
panel where the coil is, and that tightening the bolts that hold that panel
down really won't do anything, other than confine the drip to the insides of
the boiler somehow - so I'll basically be covering up the problem by
isolating it in that manner. If I still had an old coil in the boiler, I'd
take a guess that it had failed and was leaking, but the fact that it had
been replaced a little over a year ago makes me wonder if they only replaced
the faceplate, and not the coil. Of course, that's unproven until it gets
opened up, of course.

I'm a little annoyed that the technician that was out didn't notice this
problem, but who knows. My assumption is that at least he didn't somehow
cause the problem, as the rust seems to indicate that this has been going on
for a while at least.

Any suggestions on what might be causing this and the best way to get it
repaired?

Thank you so much for your earlier suggestions, they really helped out!

Mark



"Dr. Hardcrab" wrote in message
news:AngPe.20810$0U6.604@trnddc09...
Give us an update once they correct it....

"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...

"Dr. Hardcrab" wrote in message
news:j6PNe.5748$xp.3259@trnddc02...

"Mark Holbrook" wrote in message
...
Hello all, I have an oil boiler (ca. mid 80s, according to previous
owner) that every now and then rumbles loudly (sounds like a truck
going by outside the house), and spews gray/black smoke from what
normally is the air inlet vent on the pipe that leads to the chimney. I
have had a couple furnace guys over and they shrug their shoulders and
say that unless it does it while they are there they don't know what it
could be.

SNIP

Sounds like late ignition to me. Burner comes on, sprays quite a bit of
oil into the fire box and then lights. Could be a number of things:

Like Mr. Berlin says: Oil filter could be clogged.

pump strainer (if it has one) could be clogged (big culprit that a lot
of techs overlook)

Pump may not be delivering the requires PSI (did they check it with a
guage? Could show if the filter or the strainer is stopped up OR the
pump is bad)

Transformer could be weak (sometime when they start to go bad they are
sporadic)

Could be a hairline crack in one of the porcelains (this causes the
spark to arc on the nozzle assembly instead of at the ends of the
electrodes)

The electrodes could be set wrong (spark will arc ON the nozzle)

Wrong size nozzle

True, you can run into one that will not do it 99 times in a row and
then on the hundreth time you got Choo Choo Charlie.

Unless you have a contraxt with the shoulder shruggers, you may want to
try another company. Explain to them what it is doing and let them go
from there....

Wow, that is a lot of possibilites, I will make sure to print this out
and ask each of these querstions of the person that I have come out to
take a look at this. I very much appreciate your thorough response.

Thanks!

Mark