New Century House with Two Pipe Steam - Questions

Hey everyone, apologies for the radio silence, and a big thank you for all of your helpful info. I FINALLY found some time to get the suspect traps open and I’m ordering some Tunstall replacements:

Thought I’d share a pic of the guts:

Warren Webster 712HB

now while I’m waiting on the ordered capsules, would anyone have any idea what type of valve this is? It says Webster on the other side of the handle and I’m assuming there’s a pin that connects the top handle to the valve itself but that is missing.

Thanks again everyone!

Thanks @mattmia2 ! It doesn't look broken off to me (I'll get a few more pics) but either way I have some steel dowels on order to see if that can fix it.

I was also wondering, is it okay to use copper anti-seize on the threaded tunstall capsules and the trap covers? I want to make sure I'm not eroding anythign with copper/brass/steel mixing.

Awesome, thanks @Mad Dog_2, I appreciate it. I'm excited to crank the system up and see what we get!

I also got a few better pics of the vapor valve (and the new steel dowel pin I ordered!) as well:

It very well could have broken off, but the bottom of the handle doesn't seem broken or rough. The dowel pin I ordered is sliiightly too small so there is still some play in the handle, but I was able (with a bit of force) to get it to turn, so all in all, progress.

Hey @CoachBoilermaker and everyone, sorry for the radio silence! A couple updates:

Thanks @Steamhead, I was able to get a small metal dowel into the lock-shield key and get the valve open!

I rebuilt 6 of the traps with new Tunstall capsules which was fun (an impact wrench was 100% worthwhile) and now those radiators are heating! We made it through last winter okay, but this winter will be much better.

We've got every radiator working except two:
- The baseray (still not getting more than 2 feet of heat even with a rebuilt trap),
- The attic hallway (I think the valve is the problem as I rebuilt that trap).

I also built a radiator tracker on Notion (screenshot below) to keep track of all these repairs and issues!

One thing I'm still trying to figure out is how to balance the system (hard with some of the broken valves). Essentially the first floor gets really nice and warm, while the second and third are just "okay." It seems like the upstairs radiators don't stay terribly hot for long, so I'm thinking one option is to replace the old thermostat with an Ecobee and use sensors upstairs as the main temperature reading.

Is there anything else I should be thinking of at this point? Water pH level, cleaning the main vent, anythign to reduce cost of running it, etc? I also need to get a low pressure gauge.

A seriously big thank you to all of you helping me get the system back up and running. This is an exciting adventure!

Yep all radiators have Traps @mattmia2.
I’ll go and double check all the returns on all the radiators to make sure none of them are hot

For the attic radiator I opened the trap while the system was running and heard a faint like, burble or bubbling that would stop when I plugged up the radiator side hole or closed the valve.

If it is a slug of water in the main or return, how does one remove it?

Just checked and at least two of the radiators that have always been heating have very warm to actually hot return pipes coming off of them. What’s the differential I should be looking for, return more than 10 degrees cooler than the radiator?

the radiator that has the hot return is also hot so I’m assuming it’s the one sending steam into the return. The one that isn’t heating at all has literally no heat in the supply or return.

Once I get the valve on the attic rad that isn’t heating opened up I’ll report back!