Bad Trap...?

RoiiRaz

Dear Pros,



I live in a 1920 house in Providence, RI with a 400k BTU Burnham (likely oversized - the house has ~3200 sq ft). I've been studying the system for the past few years. I've been enjoying "We Got Steam Heat" (which my 12-year-old took from me and started reading as well) and "The lost art..." I'm trying to diagnose some problems and have a few questions:



Question #1: Any recommendations for steam pros in my area?



My system is a one-pipe with two mains and a Barnes & Jones T43 F&T trap at the end of each dry return -- needed because we have a boiler-feed pump with a receiver (probably because of the lack of vertical clearance between the returns and the boiler -- less than 6 ft from the return to the floor).



My most pressing issue started with hammering and water squirting out of the last radiator on one of the mains. It was intermittent at first, but got worse recently. My diagnosis was a clogged trap, because the trap on this main was barely warm while the one on the other main was hot. I figured I'm stuck with a lot of condensate which wasn't moving along. I bought the T43 repair kit and took apart the trap. Indeed, found a LOT of rust chips inside. Cleaned it out, but could not figure out how to remove the float arm and valve even after removing the two bolts which connect the anchor plate of the floar arm to the trap body (and the vent too). I ran the boiler with the trap open to verify that my return is not blocked. I did get condensate and eventually some steam. So, I cleaned it up, sprayed some water up the return with a hose to clean it out (it all drained back fine), and then closed it back with a new gasket.



Question #2: My T43 (see photo) does not look exactly like some of the images I saw online. Are there multiple versions of B&J T43 F&Ts? If not, how do I get that old float arm assembly out of the trap body so I can put in the new one? What about the trap vent? How do I get that out?



Question #3: I see no main vent on either of my mains. Is my trap meant to serve as the main vent in this configuration?



Question #4: I got a digital thermostat a couple of years ago which lets me set the swing value. I set it to 1 degree, figuring that with a slightly higher swing I would prevent short-cycling and save on pickup. The thermostat also shows boiler run-time per day, so I can make a change and measure. I recently dropped the swing to 1/4 degree to prevent strong hammering at night until I fix the trap issue. I found that this change significantly dropped the daily boiler run-time. Make sense? Is my theory about saving on pickup incorrect?





Many thanks in advance for any wisdom.



Best,

-Roii