To the basement, or to the scrapyard? My attempt to resurrect a Tarm Excel 2200 Wood Gasification boiler

[kenmbz]

I have a Tarm wood/oil burner with internal 40 gallon HW and house heat.

I have the original manuals somewhere if you need a copy.
Thing is a beast, I only use the oil side now, but with cost of oil going up it may push me to use wood.
Mine is pretty clean right now. But needs to be a bit more cleaned soon.

 

[aczlan]

Took it outside and rinsed it out with a hose, got enough out for now to work on it without getting covered in ash, will pressure wash things later.
Inside the firebox:

More to the front of the firebox:

Down below:

Where I washed out out:

I now have a box fan sitting on the cleanout opening pushing air through to push the "loose water" out.
Before I go to bed, I will put the heater in the bottom and hopefully finally start to dry everything out.

Aaron Z

 

[aczlan]

I have a Tarm wood/oil burner with internal 40 gallon HW and house heat.

I have the original manuals somewhere if you need a copy.
Thing is a beast, I only use the oil side now, but with cost of oil going up it may push me to use wood.
Mine is pretty clean right now. But needs to be a bit more cleaned soon.

Thanks for the offer, this came with the original manual and I have a PDF copy of it as well.

Aaron Z

 

[5030]

To tell you the truth, if it was mine (wish it was), I'd soda blast the inside and get rid of all the crud. Soda blasting, unlike sand blasting don't remove any metal at all, just crud. Guess I have to stick with my biomass stoves, oh well...

 

[TimberFarm]

That is completely out of character for that bottom burner chamber to have all that creosote in there.
That is the hottest area of the boiler. With good dry oak and a demand for heat the flames coming in the rounded burn area would almost be all blue.
Maybe just because you washed it, but it looks like the sides down there are even creosoted. Be interested to see after it all dries out.

 

[aczlan]

That is completely out of character for that bottom burner chamber to have all that creosote in there.
That is the hottest area of the boiler. With good dry oak and a demand for heat the flames coming in the rounded burn area would almost be all blue.
Maybe just because you washed it, but it looks like the sides down there are even creosoted. Be interested to see after it all dries out.

Pretty sure that they are creosoted, I think that's because it was not burning properly due to ash blocking things (especially the tubes in the back where the smoke is supposed to exit).

Had a conversation with my neighbor (who has run/maintained steam boilers for years at work) and he suggested when I'm ready to fully dry it out and/or to finish curing refractory cement to stick a salamander heater in the opening where you would load wood and let that run for an hour or so, let it cool off and repeat.
That should get it up to a couple hundred degrees, let me get the first couple of stages of curing the refractory cement taken care of in a controllable fashion (without having to fill it with water and try and run it slowly without having it hooked up to the house).
That should also let me finish drying out whatever water has been absorbed into the fire bricks in a controlled fashion.

Aaron Z

 

[5030]

If you get frustrated with it, I'll be happy to come and get it....

 

[aczlan]

If you get frustrated with it, I'll be happy to come and get it....

You will get the first call if it comes to that.

Got the back wall cleaned off tonight:

Surface rust, but it doesn't look bad. No significant pitting or erosion that I could find.

Started cleaning off the door (so it doesn't put creosote on my arm all the time) and it is the rusty mess that I was expecting the back wall to be:

Going to have to replace the insulation and the round vent adjuster as it is rusted through.

Snapped off my first bolt (lower left on the door), will weld a nut to it and see if it comes out.
If not, I will center punch, drill and try not to snap off an extractor in it.

Aaron Z

 

[5030]

Soak it down with either PBlaster or a mix of ATF and acetone and let it sit for a while before trying to remove it. Little heat helps too. I see you need a new door gasket too. TSC will have that most likely in stock. Comes in various lengths. Whomever had it really neglected it but I'll still come and get it if you decide not to restore it...

 

[TimberFarm]

The model I had, which I can't remember right now, did not have steel plates on the doors. They were each covered with a masonry piece. The bottom door had a pyrex sight glass in it that let you see how the fire was burning which it looks like you have too.