Are you familiar with this burner?

[sigma]

It is Gordon-Piat model F.

[hvac_czar]

Yep... They are really tight with the documentation... What do you need to know? Last time I needed something from them I finally threatened to rip out the GP and put in a Powerflame... that got them to play ball! :D

[sigma]

Documentation is no problem. I have an original installation manual.
My problem is setting this burner so it will have smooth ignition
and correct air-fuel mixture.
If I get it to run with nice yellow flame and no smoke; it will “puff”
with delayed ignition. It will ignite without problem only when
secondary air is low, but this will create a smoke.
Burner was working fine till started to have an intermittent flame
failures. Service Co. changed oil nozzle but problem still existed.
On their next visit I pointed to them that air pressure regulator is
discharging air and I’ve never seen that before.
They did some more adjustments but failures never stopped.
To make long story short, they did not find faulty check valve on an
air line going to the gun. Flapper broke and was moving inside the
valve causing a problem. I replaced check valve and pressure regulator
does not discharge air anymore.
On Monday I will try one more time to adjust this burner. If that
does not work, the Service Co will be back again.

[sigma]

Here is this burner.
Maybe a picture will refresh someone's memory.

http://www.ryancompanyinc.com/GordonPiatt.htm

[cg2]

Checking combustion thru entire range of operation should help nail down where the problems are.

[sigma]

Analyzer is good for final tune-up to achieve pick efficiency.
You use it when your eyes and ears can’t no longer detect any abnormalities.
So far in my case, I did not pass this stage yet.



[Edited by sigma on 01-29-2006 at 07:38 PM]

[flange]

shouldnt be too much of a mystery to setup, is this dual fuel? or oil only? what type of fire? low-high-off, full modulating? dont remember them by letters anymore. I think oil should be around 275 at high fire? on #2

[sigma]

It is dual fuel. No 5 oil and natural gas. Full modulation from low to high fire.
I know that it should be no mystery to set it up but there are so many adjustments
that if one does not do it on a regular basis, it is kind of tough.
Even oil nozzle has an adjustment. Who knows if it is set for No. 5 oil?
Who knows if distance from tip of a nozzle to air diffuser is right?
Nozzle and diffuser were changed by the service co.
Besides that, there is your air louvers adjustment, oil metering valve
adjustment, oil pressure adjustment, atomizing air metering
valve adjustment, position of the gun in relation to swirling cylinder
adjustment and primary to secondary air adjustment but it is fixed in one position
so does not count.

[slimwoodie]

Originally posted by sigma
Analyzer is good for final tune-up to achieve pick efficiency.
You use it when your eyes and ears can’t no longer detect any abnormalities.
So far in my case, I did not pass this stage yet.



[Edited by

sigma on 01-29-2006 at 07:38 PM]

Wow ....
a Real Burner Mechanic ..!

i don't have much help to offer on that particular burner

experience , is everything .

my advice is to call the boiler mfg, get the start-up report,starting linkage measurements, tey have the "how shipped"

'n go from there ...

feelin' for ya ....

[sigma]

Slimwoodie,

I have instruction manual with all info about start-up adjustments.
These adjustments are only good to get you started and final
tune-up is done when boiler is fired.
Anyway, a week ago during my last attempt I got lucky.
I moved oil drawer assembly (fancy name for oil gun) forward so less
of secondary air was going through center of air diffuser near nozzle
and more between edges of diffuser and cylinder. I think that to much
air velocity around nozzle was reducing spray angle and increasing
distance of atomized oil to pilot flame.
I also slightly reduced opening of air louvers in low fire.
It is now a pleasure to see nice; bushy, bright yellow flame in split second
after oil solenoid valves open. Last week was unusually warm and boiler
was cycling very frequently with little load, and no single flame failure.
It was a good learning experience. I think I’ve become an expert of G/P
"F" burner. :D

[slimwoodie]

maybe next , tackle the Powerflame " C " burner for dual fuel, like maybe nat gas./ ass gas, or something fun ...

[sigma]

I am “in- house” so G/P and Superior are only two makes that I deal with.
Since you mentioned Powerflame; we had their rep for a speaker on last RSES meting.
Have a good literature about burner model C from him.
I found very interesting that oil return line goes trough an oil pump.
This way it would be more difficult to replace it with different make.