Help identifying boiler burner maker and fuel

[Love2Piddle]

New here and already see there is a lot to learn and to make!! To date I have only dealt with steam engines made by others but have my eye on a kit to make an engine myself. I recently obtained a boiler that has had the original single burner replaced with two controllable burners. It is a Stuart 504. My question is does anyone recognize the burners in the picture, what did they use for fuel and the approximate age or date of mfg., etc. Thanks for any help anyone can provide. Ed

 

[Steamchick]

These look like Swedish Sievert camping stoves. They use petrol.
SIMPLE to use, but need unleaded fuel.
(Back in the 1970s I had leaded fuel in my motorcycle, and the lead collected in the fuel tube and clogged it solid! Works fine on today's unleaded stuff.).

1. Strip and clean the burners - using petrol, and try not to breath the fumes of set fire to anything!
2. Reassemble CAREFULLY.
3. You need a special sized pricker for the PETROL jet. (0.010"). NOT the larger sized prickers easily available for PARAFFIN (0.015in.). Get a proper Sievert pricker for the stove. Making the jet bigger than the factory size means buying a new jet - Trust me!
4. So to light the burner.
5. 3/4 fill the fuel tank - NOT more!
6. Close the fuel filler so the tank can hold pressure.
7. Place a warm hand on the tank for a minute or so with the fuel tap open, when fuel should pump through and exude from the jet. IF this doesn't happen, maybe there is a blockage in the jet? - Remove it and prick so you can see a tiny hole when held to the light. While the jet is removed, fuel should try and come of of the burner stem... if not there is a blockage in the wick, fuel tap or other pipework location. Fix that before try to light anything. BUT when the burner does exude a drop of petrol from the jet as above... light it with a lighter. DO NOT wait for a puddle of petrol otherwise you'll set fire to your eyebrows!! You should only have a little flame - like a candle flame. Hold a warm hand on the fuel tank again for another minute, when the flame should get larger. Then let it sit for a few minutes while it warms the burner and the flame finally starts puffing and blowing blue in the burner. My stove only takes a couple of minutes from ignition to having a stove flame fit for boiling a kettle.
8. If this is unsatisfactory, buy a gas burner. I can make and sell you a ceramic burner - ideal for that boiler and twice as powerful, but gas costs 3 times the cost of petrol for the same heat. A kit costs £60 - £100 from Stuart or similar supplier. Then sell me the Sievart burners as they are really good, well engineered, and petrol is cheaper than gas! - But I think you have a good boiler and burners, and should give many years of satisfactory steaming.

Cheers!
K2

 

[Jens Eirik Skogstad]

Read here how to use the pressurised kerosene/paraffin stove. https://www.berniedawg.com/primus-96-stove-instruction-card/

 

[Steamchick]

Nice one Jens, except the Sievert - or maybe I have the wrong name and it is Optimus? or now SVEA? - petrol stove is a different device from a paraffin stove, which should NEVER be used with petrol.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svea_123
Wiki has even got a page on the type of stove I am talking about. (I have owned one for 50+ years, so have a lot of experience of using it). I also have paraffin pressure burners, and a range of paraffin and petrol blow-lamps for boiler making.
Fundamentally these petrol and paraffin devices are different, but both have their uses and can perform very well and safely by a sensible person. I have also seen some crazy things on campsites with wet fuel stoves! - One was thrown 20 meters by a frustrated owner, when full of petrol, and burning, because he was not using it correctly. (He had not fitted the filler cap properly so the fuel tank had ignited! - a big fire when the whole thing broke and flooded the burning fuel across the grass.).
But with careful use - I have used mine in the kitchen emergency when the domestic gas supply was disconnected for street pipe replacement - they can give lots of safe service. Like any canned fuel. But I always fill/drain fuel tanks outside in fresh air away from any ignition source.
K2

 

[Steamchick]

Lovetopiddle - I think this is the modern version of your burners?

But like all these "useless-tube" videos wthey are FULL of unsafe practices!
E.g. the filler cap has a Pressure RELIEF valve fitted as standard, NOT an "adapter for pressurising the tank!.
Filling the well with fuel to ignite the burner is not necessary - as demonstrated he set-fire tothe bench!!. Just a drip is adequate to light, then let it develop the proper flame in a minute or 2.
DO NOT remove the filler cap if there is a flame anywhere near (e.g. another burner. Let everything cool down fully before opening any filler caps. Otherwise there is a risk the fuel will boil rapidly from the residual heat from the burner, and give a large cloud of vapour that will ignite and possibly remove more than the hairs on your arms and eyebrows! - This video demonstrates adequately how easy it is to set-fire to stuff!
A COLD device is safe, a HOT device is only safe if sealed properly and used properly.
Enjoy!
K2

 

[Jens Eirik Skogstad]

When I ran out of kerosene from blow lamp to heat ut the hot bulb on Sabb 3-5 hp semidiesel engine, then I mixed diesel with 25-30% petrol as fuel for blow lamp. Works well..

 

[Steamchick]

Good! Glad it worked.
But if you had simply tried petrol, it would be too hot with the heater coil in the flame and the flame would blow itself out! Just venting degraded (toxic) petrol by-products. Ask a chemist!
And Diesel fuel on its own probably would not burn cleanly. Not enough heat from the burner coils?
K2

 

[Jens Eirik Skogstad]

Good! Glad it worked.
But if you had simply tried petrol, it would be too hot with the heater coil in the flame and the flame would blow itself out! Just venting degraded (toxic) petrol by-products. Ask a chemist!
And Diesel fuel on its own probably would not burn cleanly. Not enough heat from the burner coils?
K2

With petrol mixed in dieselfuel did not big difference to use kerosene in blow lamp. The flame was nice and blue.

 

[Steamchick]

Another site for the curious:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svea_123
K2

 

[Jens Eirik Skogstad]

Another site for the curious:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svea_123
K2

Works same principle as the Saito blow lamp where the pressure in fuel tank is generated by heat.

 

[Steamchick]

I have 5 petrol blowlamps. 2 use heat for pressure, 3 use hand pumps.
They were very common in the UK after WW2 as the Army used them for field stoves as they could use the fuel = petrol - used by a lot of the transport. From small vehicles to tanks! - and by soldiers wth flame throwers. I bought one for £1 in 1972 for my camp stove for use on the motorcycle as I always had fuel in the bike's tank, so did not need any other fuel.
Petrol is still my cheapest fuel for silver soldering boilers, etc.
K2