Heating Help

Burner Soot Problem

I have a Burnham v 74 cleaned about a month ago and was fine until a week ago and the last several time it was to come on it failed .That being said and after removal of electrodes there was a excessive build up of carbon or soot all around the static plate and nozzle . I can clean off and re-insert and will fire but the next time furnace is called upon for heat it fails and I'm back to removal of nozzle and cleaning again.I have the settings at 1 and 8 as called on in owners manual so what could be the problem? Thanks in advance!

carbon on end cone

i would start from checking out your z-dim. your draft over the fire and in the stack also i would make sure you have a nice empty and clean chamber.by the way what type of burner you have?

Soot Problems:

Before I went that far, I'd pull the burner nozzle assembly out and hold it up vertically so the nozzle is up. Does the oil run out the end, freely? If not, the nozzle strainer is clogged. Dropping the pump pressure between the strainer and the nozzle causing poor atomization. And if so, change the filter element on the fuel filter.  Change the nozzle to the correct one. If it doesn't look too bad and it is a canister type, change the whole filter to a spin on type. If you want to do it right, install two spin on filters.
Unless you have a Beckett burner, there is no "Z" dimension to check. And the only "Z" dimensions I have ever seen worth checking were the ones that the end cone was burning off. If you get carbon on the retention ring. the boiler is probably sooted up. Clean the boiler. 

soot or carbon

from the initial question looks like the burner was serviced a few weeks ago.i am assuming that all that was checked out,everybody likes to change this and that'without pulling out the vac, and the brush.so i get nice plugged boiler every other call.pizzamen is not sure if he is getting carbon or soot on the end cone or rit. head.again whats the draft and what kind of smoke reading we are getting.but again why bother lets keep on changing parts.

Why not call

the serviceman back?, its only been 4 weeks or so. If he;s honest and its something he goof;d up (assembly postion) he should eat the call and fix things up . At lest thats what he should do and if its something unrelated to the clean out then im sure he;l be fair (hopefully).
What type of furnace/ burner is on it anyways? (reillo, beckett, areo, ect)

i agree

i agree with you , it is hard to diagnose when you do not have enough info.maybe he just have a weak ignitor.....

self-service?

I am guessing that pizzaman did the cleaning himself?

i also agree

with you from the type of information given out.by my experience i see a lot of home owners loosing and moving the wrong things ,and changing out the settings.