Oil furnace won't stay on... please help!

Morning everyone!

Before I start, I would like to mention that I called a technician but company I deal with said one won't be available for another 3+ weeks. So here I am...

I click the reset button and oil furnace lights up and burns for about a minute then shuts off. I have to wait another minute before doing it again and then it shuts off again. After doing this 4-5 times, the blower finally comes on but the oil furnace shuts off again. After waiting for the reset to engage again, I hit the button again and then we have heating as both the oil furnace and blower work together. But once the desired temperature is reached and both shut off, I have start the entire procedure again.

Important information:

1- I just had a new oil tank installed last summer (2008) and it worked fine. I did leave the tank dry all summer and just had it filled 3 weeks ago.

2- I replaced the oil and air filters yesterday.

3- I removed the flame detector and tested it with an ohm meter and it works just fine (I probed the 2 tongs in darkness and then placed the flame detector in direct light and it closed the circuit).

4- I removed the nozzle and cleaned it.

5- I've bled the line so many times that I lost count...

6- Wall thermostat works fine (only have one in whole house).


I'm an aeronatic/defence machinist and consider myself mechanically inclined but this problem has me stumped. Please help

Stop hitting the reset button 1-2 times if you hit more then that you are dumping oil in the chamber so when it does turn on your going get black smoke puff back rumbles its not a nice sight.

Nozzle should not be clean they need to be replace
when you bleed your oil line did you get oil out? was it black or reddish? if you got oil out from bleeder did you get oil out of the jet line that the little copper tube going to the nozzle assembly that comming out of the pump take that tube aim @ a bucket and see if you got oil if you do good if not check and clean your pump strainer if it has one if the pump says webster it does not have it.

now shut power down remove the primary control so you can see the wire thats under. the box with the reset button is the primary control find the black wire thats comming out of the burner motor remove it and wire nut it now wire nut the rest back the way it was minus 1 blk motor wire this will let you check your transformer with out pumping oil into the chamber face the transformer back to close turn power on now lift ur transformer open USE A SCREW DRIVER WITH A RUBBER GRIP! ONLY. touch both springs to see if you have a spark if you dont then its dead need a new one.

Your description is plain enough... you've been thinking of it as a start problem, but it sounds like the problem is that the flame won't sustain until the refractory chamber is hot enough to help it sustain. The oil burner could suffer from any of the below...

1) electrodes in poor condition, burned up, etc.
2) low igniter (spark transformer) voltage
3) air/fuel misajustment (too much air)
4) Dirty oil nozzle
5) clogged oil line strainer at pump
6) dirty oil filter
7) low nozzle pressure (adjust)
8) motor and/or wiring problem resulting in low RPM ( and low oil pressure and erratic air.)

Unless you already did this fall, buy a filter, a nozzle and a set of electrodes and put them. If the flame still puffs out, adjust the flame. You may want a set of brazing goggles or at least some very dark sunglasses to look at the flame for an expended period. You should be ablt to find instructions on the net for your particular burner.

PS cleaning the nozzle isn't as effictive as it might be because the a lot of the magic in the device comes from the internal swirl chamber.