in ground fuel tank oil pump at oil burner will not stay primed.?

Question

have to reprime evert time oil burner is started

Answer 1

there maybe a small break in the line. which will loose the prime every time the unit shuts off.. you may have to dig the line up or find a way to put a pressure test on it..

Answer 2

The good news is that you've isolated the side of the pump where the problem is...the suction side of the pump. Two likely possibilities are that the pump head itself may be gummed up - if its a diaphragm pump there are two poppet valves with little balls that open and close during operation. The other possibility is that there is a check valve (permits flow only in one direction) that may be gummed up. The solution is to clean the pump head or the valve. It is possible you have a leak some place in the suction line but the fact that you are able to prime the pump manually indicates that the suction line is intact. An obvious way to avoid this type of issue is to make sure your pump always has a flooded suction...ie the oil tank above the suction side of the pump of course this will involve some expense.

You might re post the question with some information on the pump itself.

Answer 3

Another possibility is that the tank is below the level of the burner far enough that a weak oil pump can't pull enough suction to maintain prime on the oil line. You could consider either a two pipe system, and incorporate a tigerloop oil de-aerator device, or also consider the use of a day tank. Essentially a small oil tank with its own pump that keeps a set level and makes it easier for the burner to stay in prime.

Answer 4

This sounds like carburation to me. It sounds like the old Ford carburetors when they went bad. After you turned them off, the fuel run back into the line or tank emptying the carburetor thus, needing a re prime or turning over many times before starting.

I would look at the obvious, the carburetor. It's leaking air or there's a leak in the pump inside the carburetor or the float is leaking at the stop.

Answer 5

I do believe that you could ought to have a diagram showing the routing from the gas furnish tank to the pump and from the pump discharge with the help of the entire routing of the launch line with accompanying dimentional adjustments in elevations to the severe connection on the burner of the furnace to come back up with a maximum excellent "engineering" answer, yet I *ARE* a engineer (graduated from L.S.U. with a B.S. in Mech. Engineering in 1950), and my fuzzy, 80 one+ 365 days-previous mind *thinks* that in case you grant an *air-tight* furnish piping gadget for your gas oil pump and through the pump discharge to the burner of your furnace; and also you're making confident that the gadget is punctiliously packed with oil -- not containing *ANY* air bubbles, and that your pump has the launch potential to lift the bypass of oil to the optimum properly you want to bypass over the hallway and nonetheless furnish the needed quantity of gas oil to the burner, you ought to be able to DO IT! perfect desires and powerful luck!