Old Williamson Furnace, Need tuning advice

Robert_H

Background, this was a favor on a day off and I did not have everything, just that box in back of the car...
An Old Williamson Furnace off on safety. On reset, no fire so I checked the bleed port and there was a bit of air. After a good bleed it started but there was was significant delayed ignition, some times no start. The spark was strong and the electrodes had obviously recently been cleaned and set. I replaced the nozzle and that took care of it. I did tell them I should clean it and properly set up combustion and I will be going back.

Now for help,
This Williamson Furnace has no labels anywhere except "Williamson" the burner looks like and old Beckett and has a Wayne pump. The installed nozzle was a 60-80A I put in a 65-80B assuming the last person knew more than me. I got reasonable visual fire and nice starts. My plan is to clean and CA but, this is a non-retention head burner, which I don't had much experience with. Like 3 of them! So do I still go for 0/trace - 1% or are there other considerations. I have done a lot of searching but what I have found on the subject seems vague.

Also, in a system this old, I expect the starting pump pressure should be 100PSI and I should start with .60 nozzles, this house is a small single floor. Probably 800Sq/ft on a good day. Any insight will be appreciated.

Robert

EdTheHeaterMan

You want to do a cracked heat exchanger test when you get the combustion kit. On a furnace that old that is always a possibility. The fuel pump would be Webster or Suntec (formerly Sundstrand). The Wayne label is the oil burner manufacturer, like Carlin or Beckett. Can you take a photo?

With non-flame retention burners, the zero to a trace of smoke is still your goal. The nozzle angle and pattern are more aligned with the air flow, unlike Flame Retention where the high speed air pattern actually moves the fuel oil to the retention head's low pressure zone to be recirculated. The Non-retention burner will have more excess air resulting in a lower temperature flame. But you still want zero to a trace of smoke.

If the assembly has a large static plate, that will cause the air pattern to be hollow so you use a hollow nozzle. If there is no static plate then you would have a solid air pattern and use a solid nozzle. If the combustion chamber is round you use a 80°, of the chamber is long and narrow you use a 60° nozzle. (70° spray nozzles were uncommon in the 1970s and 1980s but that does not mean they wont work in this heater)

This is the old model M oil burner manual https://waynecombustion.com/uploads/downloads/discontinued-manual-m-oil-burner-no-pub-date-or-rev.pdf

This is the old model E burner manual https://waynecombustion.com/uploads/downloads/discontinued-manual-e-oil-burner-estimate-late-60s.pdf

both of these are non-flame retention burners.

Robert_H

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1845379#Comment_1845379

Thank you Ed, as usual, great help and insight. I read through both manuals last night and hope they will let me come back and do a full service. That's still up in the air. If I do I will get photos. thanks for the explanation about the static plate or not creating the flame pattern. It makes sense.