The Burner - Mounting and Adjustments

A Review

Up to now we have fully assembled the Lyka,  hooked up all the piping,  dropped in the boiler,  finished the steam connections and are ready to mount the burner and make some steam.

If you have not done this then you should drop back a couple of episodes, review the connection process and the overall build. 

So here is my baby, without the burner.  

 

Mounting the connecting the Reillo Burner 

The instructions from STW on mounting the burner are somewhat scant.  In addition, they tell you to RTFM and also tell you to mount the burner upside down.   Well, you need to RTFM, but you CANNOT mount the burner upside down. 

When you read the manual and documentation on the burner, you will see that it has been written for the HVAC professional and not a hobbyist like ourselves.  So there are a number of terms and conditions that may be undefined in your normal vocabulary.   

First there is the mounting process:  

The burner, when installed right-side-up, has a single bolt holding it in place.  However, the burner was not designed to be mounted on a bouncing vehicle, with the burner on its side.  The original design uses the weight of the burner to hold the seal tight against the mounting plate.  When you put everything in a 90degree rotation, the forces of gravity are wrong and there will be undue stress  on the mounting bolt and plate. 

To mitigate these forces, we need to fabricate a means to fasten another bolt on the opposite side from the factory mounting location.   If you turn your burner over, you will see a 10mm threaded hole opposite the mounting bolt.   There is also a hole in the mounting plate in the same location.   But they are facing the wrong ways.   You need to make a "L" shaped bracket and use two bolts to hold everything in place.

This is a really tight spot to work in.   Here is a picture of me holding a piece of brass angle in place while trying to figure out the way that works best: 

   The factory bolt is at the top, my finger is pointing to the location of the added bolt. 

 The trick here is how to get access to one of the connections in order to remove the burner in the future. I chose that the connection to the mounting plate should be "permanent" and the bolt into the burner should be removable.   The bracket will have a countersunk bolt into the mounting plate and then I will use a bolt with a slot cut into the head for fastening the burner. 

 

The mounting plate also must be modded a little.  You need to cut away for the bolt head on the support strap.  Both the friable gasket and the mounting plate need to be cut away to clear the bolt.  I managed to make a mistake and cut the wrong place on the plate.   Finally, make sure you use the 1/2 height nuts and cut off the excess on the plate bolts, otherwise you will have some obstruction when you mount the burner. 

 

If you look carefully on the right side you can see the head of the countersunk bolt holding the bracket in place.  

 

When mounted, it only takes a moment to tighten the two bolts.  Here are views from the top ab both sides of the installed burner. 

Mounting the Inverter. 

STW provides a bracket to hold the inverter.  They have the habit of mounting things to the inside of the body panels.  I do not like to do this, so I decide to follow Grier's example (again) and provide an additional structural member to hold the bracket. 

I start with a piece of aluminum angle from the scrap pile. 

Painted and mounted.
 

Countersunk mounting holes and on goes the bracket - 

 

STW provides some foam tape.  This goes on the inner edges of the bracket to help absorb shocks.  The power cables from the control box connect to the terminals on the lower end of the inverter.  The power plug to the burner goes into the other end. 

The first time I connected power to the inverter from STW it blew a 30 amp fuse.  Not good.  I checked it out further and determined it was indeed an "out of box failure".   STW sent me another.   But in the meantime, I ordered a similar model off the web.   They are probably from the same Chinese factory. 

In the picture above you can also see the fuel line connection to the fuel filter.  More on that later. 

Wiring the burner to the inverter. 

The burner comes from the factory with a pre-wired pigtail cable.  When you open up the end of the pigtail, you can see where the connections are made and where you will need to connect wires on the cable coming from the inverter.   

This is where living over here in the USA can be a detriment to common sense.   We are on a 110V 60hz standard.  Most of our electrical devices run at 110V and we look at 220VAC as something that powers major appliances like stoves, hot water heaters,  and other high current items.  While we might get an occasional shock at 110, the 220 feeds are avoided with fear.     

In our circuits, we have 2 - 110v legs and a neutral (ground),  so when I see a diagram like that below showing 230V with just a L(ine) and N(eutral) my brain rebels. 
 

Looking at the diagram above, it took a minute to figure out that the successful firing only requires Line voltage at the T2 connector.   That is because the connection at 1 (line) gets looped out to T1, routed thru thermostats and switches and back into T2.  Since we do not have thermostats, we can just connect to T2 directly when we want the burner to fire.   

STW provides a short piece of power cable, the larger multi-plug end and the 3 prong connector.  The 3-Prong connector has a built in fuse (15A).  You just have to trim each lead to length and make sure the screws are all snugged down and tight.

 

The multi-socket end can be mounted to the support bracket by either drilling some holes and using supplied bolts or, as I did, you can use the super heavy duty 3M double sided tape to fix it in place. 

Then plug the 3-prong end into the inverter.  Leave the power switch on the inverter in the OFF position for now. 

 

Fuel Line and Filter 

In the pictures above, you can see the braided fuel line coming from the fuel filter.   The complete fuel system should be in your shipment from STW.  This would include a Tank outlet connector, the 1/4" copper fuel line, the metal - cleanable fuel filter, and the connectors for the inlet and outlet of the filter.  

The outlet of the filter and the braided line from the filter to the burner are provided with the burner.  However in my shipment I was missing the inlet port to the filter. Also - I did not know that the outlet port was inside one of the misc parts bags in the burner box.  

So since I wanted to make some other changes, I decided to make the 1/4" copper connections compression.   My first change in design was to acquire an on/off valve for the fuel tank exit port.

Actually it is an On/Off/Drain valve.

The fuel line is routed thru all the other piping and comes very close to the Flame Shield.  So close infact that I worried about excessive heat.   I later protected it in a heat-wrap to avoid issues. 

 

Adjustments that need to be made. 

When the Riello’s ship, they are setup for Kerosene as a fuel.  If you use these settings for diesel you will be under-powering the burner and it will not put out decent heat, lowering the overall efficiency of the boiler and steam output. 

In the manual, toward the back, is a table with the settings.    Table E. 

We have a nozzle rated at 2.00GPH and 60 deg.    The marker above shows the default settings.  

 

Below are the settings for diesel.  

 

The three settings are: 

Pump Pressure

Combustion Head

Air damper

The easiest is the Air Damper. 

It comes in at 3.3,   You need to set it to 5.0.  You loosen two screws and rotate it until the little arrow points to 5.0

Make sure you tighten the screws again. 

 

 

The combustion head is weird.  

 

I can not figure out how to make the adjustments from the 

way the manual explains them.   I was able to “reverse engineer”  a way to set the opening. 

On the chart,  we can see that the initial settings is at 2.5, and we want to end up at 5. 

So we need to increase the setting by another 2.5.  I think this is mm but I am not sure. 

Looking at the manual - 

 

Look at the lower section:  

The last sentence says:” One set point corresponds to three (3) turns of the rod. A hole 

(in one of the faces) will facilitate counting the number of turns."   

 

Since we need to move 2.5 set points, this would be 7 1/2 turns of the knob.     

The picture below shows the knob. 

 

It’s hard to see but on the burner there are markings to direct you for + and -.   This sets the combustion chamber settings. 

 

 

The last parameter is the pump pressure.   

 

In the chart this is to be set to 12Bar or ~175psi.

 

There is a panel on the burner that has two features: 

An adjustment screw and a port with a bolt in it. 

 

You need a pressure gauge.   Any one will do as long as you can get to 175psi (12Bar).

The port is 1/8BSP so you might need an adapter.     My rig can be seen below.

I added a valve (just because) and adjusted the screw until I got to 175psi.  

You have to do it while the  burner is running.   BUT WAIT!!  

So you had probably better hook up the fuel line.  In the picture above, right above the end of the fuel line, you can just see the edge of a YELLOW plastic plug.  It is the only one on the burner.  This is where the fuel line attaches.  

 

You need to get fuel line "primed" by sucking some thru it. I added a short piece of clear tubing to the end and then sucked until I could see the fuel appear.  Then I applied a bit of thread sealant and screwed in the fuel line.  

 

Since you waited until you had all the pipework done before you got to this point, you should be able to put some water in the boiler.  You just need a couple of gallons in there to keep from scorching the boiler.  You can use the filler hole in the top and a small funnel to get some in.  Only the lower connections (drain-down and lower sight glass connection) need to be in place or temporarily plugged.

 

NOW YOU CAN FIRE THE BOILER AND ADJUST THE PRESSURE. Use a screwdriver to move the adjustment to about 175 PSI (12 Bar). Clockwise increases the pressure, it might take a couple of turns.  

This concludes the settings for the burner. 

Important notes:

 

1. Even though people say that you can fire the boiler for a short (15-20 sec) period without water - DO NOT do that.  Do not risk the boiler for a quick test.  put a couple of gallons in it and you can then test, but unless you fill it up I would limit the tests to a minute or two. 

 

2. Really study the Riello manual,  there are a number of facts in there that will enable you to understand the way the burner works.  What to do if it misfires and how to clean it when you do maintenance.  

 

Thanks for reading, 

Jim Pope

Denver, CO USA