Well, last week the day before our tour here I fired up my 735 with an Empire Burner and went to fill it up with fuel, by the time I got 1/2 way there hardly any fuel was coming out of the jet, so checked the main fuel filter, the little one by the jet, etc. and nothing worked. Tried to pull the cable and it was stuck!
Well, I had pulled the cable and cleaned the vaporizer about 200 miles ago so it seems like it clogged up pretty quick. The vaporizer is 8 feet long 1/4" pipe with a 3/16 " cable. I am burning a mix of diesel and regular unleaded gas, about a 50/50 or 60/40 mix. I could just try kerosene but it is a bit hard to come by out here.
Any suggestions on what I should burn to avoid carbon deposits in the future, and, more pressingly, does anyone have a suggestion on how to free up the cable and clean out my existing vaborizer? I put a cable clamp on the end of the cable and attatched my slide hammer, but have yet to have any success. Thanks, Eric

Frustrating problem
A couple of weeks ago I made up two vaporizers for a 20 HP boiler. The one I was given to copy had a stuck cable as you described. The length of the ¼ IPS was slightly less then six feet. I unwound it to a straight pipe and still was unable to pull the cable.
I made the new ones from 316-L SS
Personally I don’t think they should be over five feet, and located close to the grate, it might take a little longer to fire up. Kerosene crack around 400 F I have measured branch forks at 900 F
Good luck

A stuck cable in a main fuel vaporizer is a tough one to remove, but it can be done with oxygen and heat. Pass the oxygen through the vaporizer and at the same time, heat the end of the vaporizer with a torch. The carbon will burn out and you can follow the burn by watching the red glow on the outside of the vaporizer. Using too much torch heat, a hole can quickly blow through the side wall of the vaporizer. Vaporizer lengths dictate what fuel you can use successfully without cracking the fuel and plugging it solid with carbon. For straight gasoline, a four foot long main fuel vaporizer works well. For straight kerosene, a six foot long vaporizer works well. I run kerosene in our Stanleys for it's extra BTUs of heat per gallon over gasoline. Because of it's lower flash point, I find kerosene a much safer fuel to use than gasoline. If my Stanleys sit idle for very long, I will first use my firing up valve to get my vaporizer hot again before turning on the kerosene main fuel valve. We all enjoyed The Dalles tour. Darth Vader (Bob Ullrich) and his 1922 Stanley 740 was a hit with everyone. See the attachment.

I use a 4 foot long vaporizer in my 1922 Stanley and it works wonderful with a 80% gasoline and 20% Diesiel mix. It very rarely cloggs with any carbon although I do blow it out each run with stam.

CWR

Be a little bit careful that the pumps dont leak,,,,,,and that the diaphram in the lo-water auto doesn't spring a leak,,,Cheers Ben

A six foot vaporiser with 50/50 gasolene/diesel works well for me. The vaporiser is about 1.5 to 2 inches above the burner plate. My car doesn't have a steam enema fitted and when I pull the cable out (a couple of times a year at most) I find almost no carbon on it. This is with 120psi and number 60 jets.

One suggestion - always have the main burner valve well open - say 1.5 to 2 turns. This allows the combination of fuel pressure, gas expansion and jet size to control the rate of fuel flow so the heat input to the fuel is stabilised. If you restrict the fuel flow with the valve (as some do so as to stop howling) the cooling effect of the fuel through the vaporiser is reduced, the whole thing gets too hot and the fuel is carbonised. It is important to let the thing control itself.

Of course the steam automatic is not an on/off switch so it does modulate and run partly open for quite a lot of the time which doesn't help but just don't add to the problem.

If a burner still keeps choking I would suggest trying the next larger size of jet as this would make the vaporiser run cooler - easier as a quick fix than shortening the vaporiser. Also when you pull the cable take a look and see if there is a particular spot where the carbon builds up - may show that the vaporiser is too hot at that point.

Mike



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2007 08:10PM by mike clark.

In making the length on my 1922 I started by cutting the vaporizer at the hot dog. My original length was 9 1/2 feet. Once there was no more carbon I welded it back on...problem solved. I am running with a baker burner, 140# of fuel pressure, and # 56 jets. In California it does not seem to howl much.

CWR

Another thought - the vaporiser cable can clog with carbon between the twists of the wire. This swells the cable, restricting the flow of fuel and making a hot spot which very quickly bungs up the whole thing. Only answer - new cable.

This just happened to a friend's newly acquired 10hp which made carbon very nicely and clogged its jets every time out, eventually refusing to make steam. New cable cured it.

Mike

There's a PS to this story - out at the weekend with the new cable the thing still carboned up very quickly - and the carbon this time was right at the front end of the cable, not halfway along where it had previously swollen up. Turned out that the weld between the vaporiser pipe and the body of the branch forks over the pilot was failing - it finally gave out causing a flare up and the need for a recovery truck home and new paint for the hood. Be warned - lots of carbon at this point means trouble.

Just one more thought - a vaporiser failure like this causes a major flood of fuel to go into the burner pan as the steam auto is fully open when you turn the tap to light up. For a long time I have used a very restricted pipe on my car between the steam auto and the vaporiser (3/16th pipe stuffed with 4 full length pieces of 1mm copper wire) and I imagine this would have much reduced the pool of fuel and size of flare-up had my chum had this on his car. Pretty steep learning curve for someone new to steamers but fortunately no burned fingers or worse.

Mike



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/27/2007 08:17PM by mike clark.

I use a very small cable in my 1922 Stanley. It works best with gasoline, but will burn fine with 50/50 gas and diesiel. It will also burn Kerocene. It does need a long time to heat up to burn Kerocene, by starting on the starting valve for a good 5 miniutes and then slowly switch over to Kerocene. On Kerocene it runs fairly wet fuel and never completly vaporizes to clear as it does on gasoline.
I have found that on strait gasoline it is easy to fill up on gas as it is easily availble and does not clog up hardly ever. I do occasiionally blow off the vaporizer, but only once every 10 runs or so.

CWR

I burn straight kerosene in our Stanleys. Kerosene vaporizes to completely clear. With a half a boiler of water, I have steamed our 606 Stanley from cold to rolling in 3 1/2 minutes. It has a 23" boiler with a Baker burner. This June in Delaware, Alex Beamer shot that fast firing up on video and he never shut off his camera. I prick my jets about once every 200 miles and I will blow the vaporizer clean about once every 1,500 miles. I cannot remember when the last time it was that I ever had a plugged jet. The 1/4" stainless vaporizer cable has always come out clean when I remove it for cleaning. When I cannot find kerosene, I will add gasoline to get by on. With kerosene I am not bothered with hardly any tube fires and the other hazards that come with gasoline.

I have suffered a great deal with vapouriser clogs in the gasoline fired burner of our '07 EX and experience has taught me two things: First, make absolutely sure no steam (from the enema) enters the fuel supply to the burner. Second, the superheater coil can become red hot when steam is not flowing through it. This can impart too much heat into the vapouriser at the points where these items cross each other and the result is local clogging.

I have made a superheater tube which is shaped such that it crosses the vapouriser only at the entry point of the fuel into the burner and is kept generally well away from the vapouriser with complete success so far............

Cheers, Kobus van Jaarsveld

Hi Kobus,,,Do you recall the wall thickness of the superheater,,,Cheers Ben

Hi Ben, Sorry about the delayed reply, I was away. Wall thickness of superheater tube is 2.5 mm Stay well.....