New to me Weil Mclain 4-68

ck1

Recently purchased my grandmothers house (1942 800sq ft) and started tackling the heating system this July.
Unit was installed in 1989 by what I believe was a reputable company based on their ability to adhere to the manufactures near boiler piping recommendations.
My goal is to fix anything broken and maintain the unit as best I can until I can afford to replace it. My local heating guy says I should go propane baseboard heat but I like steam heat and feel the most economical solution it to replace the boiler for boiler.
















What I have done so far
-Had yearly oil burner serviced, filter, nozzles etc
-Replaced thin and broken flue pipe
-Replaced site glass and o rings
-Replaced burn camber insulation kit
-Took apart pressure trol, pigtail and gauge. (gauge tested OK but was blocked)
-Replaced 5 out 6 Radiator vents with new Ventrite # 1
-Replaced both Ventrite #75 main vents with Gorton # 2 (this helped a ton)
-Repacked 2 leaking radiator valves
-Unclogged McDonnell & Miller low water and feeder, unit functions correctly but drips a bit and is past its "10 year replacement" period.

Automatic water feeder was bypassed sometime in 2000 when low water cut off was installed.

Unit rated 465sq ft, I've calculated ~214sq ft but had a hard time finding charts to match the rads I have.



Issues left to tackle:

Living room rad hisses with the new vent, I'm going to swap with spare one.

Bathroom rad makes a jingling noise. I've shimmed it to tilt toward the supply side but still makes noise. Vent seems to be installed on the wrong side. I believe either water has pooled somewhere or the valve seat fell off and is jingling around.

Insulated near boiler piping.

Install low pressure gauge.


Can anyone confirm my rad EDR?
Anyone have ideas on my bathroom rad making noise? Can I take apart the supply valve or should I plan on replacing the whole valve?
Is my brass pigtail installed correctly? My understading is it should be installed vertical for the water trap. The manufactures manual does show it installed this way tho.

I have a firm mechanical background but knew nothing about steam heat. I've spent the last few months doing my best to learn as much as I can here. Just wanted to say thanks to everyone here.

dabrakeman

Others may be able yo detail it further trying to identify the exact radiators but going quickly through I agree with your assessments and note that where in grey areas you seem to have erred on the side of conservatively larger.  The 17-in and 16-in 5 tubes I also didn't find in the initial few tables I checked.  O will look some more but I assume you are measuring from the floor to the top of the radiator and not just the height of the sections themselves?? Any way you slice it, seems the boiler is quite oversized.  

ck1

I was measuring the sections but later realized I should be measuring from the floor. Ill double check my numbers. Either way I'm not too worried about it being oversized given there's not much I can do about it. 
Added a low pressure gauge ($50 bucks for that little sucker). I did watch it thru a heating cycle and confirmed the pressuretrol works. Seems to cut off ~ 2.5 and cut back in ~.75
Not awesome but glad a safety device is functioning as it should. 


I replaced my living room rad with a new vent, same issue. Also raised it by 2 quarters toward the supply valve. My next idea is to try and vent it faster instead of slower. I had it on 5, raised it to 7. Seemed to help so il keep an eye on it. 

Jamie Hall

You're on the right track. Ignore the folks who want to change you hot water baseboard -- all that tells you is they don't know how to work on steam and don't want to bother to learn.

dabrakeman

Your pigtail is not installed correctly. It should come horizontally from the boiler with loop down.

I'm not sure all hissing can be eradicated if you have a significantly oversized boiler. I have a similar situation. I find the hissing will either occur at my fastest venting radiator on normal negligible pressure cycle or will occur at the last steam closing radiators if a cycle goes on too long and pressure starts to rise.  So, I make sure my fastest venting radiators are not in my bedroom and control my cycle time so as to avoid long cycles that result in pressure build.  

HVACNUT

A 468 is way oversized for 800 sq ft. It's also got obsolete safeties. 
What's the chamber look like?
It's hard to find a good steam installer, but find one. I've personally never seen one, but the Burnham Mega Steam gets good props here.

Grallert

HVACNUT said:

A 468 is way oversized for 800 sq ft. It's also got obsolete safeties. 
What's the chamber look like?
It's hard to find a good steam installer, but find one. I've personally never seen one, but the Burnham Mega Steam gets good props here.

I'll vouch for the Mega Steam. Silly name but great boiler. I've installed a good number of them and can recommend.

STEVEusaPA

Flue pipe is the wrong gauge, way too think/against code.

ck1

HVACNUT said:

A 468 is way oversized for 800 sq ft. It's also got obsolete safeties. 
What's the chamber look like?
It's hard to find a good steam installer, but find one. I've personally never seen one, but the Burnham Mega Steam gets good props here.

Yeah based on what I've learned, way too big for the house. I will most likely be going with newengland steam works due to their reputation. After purchasing the house im just doing my best to keep this alive and safe until I can afford to replace.

Burn camber itself was replaced ~2000, I've just replaced the failing burn camber insulation kit last month aswell. 

ck1

STEVEusaPA said:

Flue pipe is the wrong gauge, way too think/against code.

My oil guy did mention the last 45 noted 30ga is in fact not correct, should be thicker but that was all he had on the truck. The original flue pipe was failing apart so he replaced it all while he was there for just annual service. Charged me just materials. I'll pick up 26ga and swap it out.