Firebox Air for #17

Gents, I see the next #17 steam days are Oct 5th and 6th. Might it be possible please to see the smokebox vacuum manometer installed by then?

Whether it is or not:

1. What happens when the firedoor air box is left open when firing and pulling hard? Does steaming improve or not, does the flame blowback decrease or not?
   
2. If the answer is not known could you try running with the door open (or off completely) and report the results? Perhaps a temporary heat baffle could be placed to protect the oil tank and crew.
   

The purpose of the above is to increase the available air going in to the firebox to observe the effect. I am assuming that changes to the air inlet at the firepan are much harder to achieve than just removing the firedoor box.

The question to be answered is whether the problem is lack of front end draft or lack of air inlet at the back (or both).

Regards,
Michael.

Dave,
Has anything been done regarding testing of #17? Or is 2013 to be regarded as a year lost?
Kind regards
Jos

I think we can pretty much count 2013 as missed opportunity. Not entirely sure why.....I will see if we can perhaps build a subset of our volunteers with a better than average interest in this stuff to push towards doing real engineering instead of tinkering. I'm at a geographic and work schedule disadvantage, so it will need to be done by those who are local and have traditional M-F work schedules....or have already retired.

Michael Guy and friend are going to be on site the first weekend on November to do more documentation and exploration on 110, perhaps they can help us outline a plan. There's a cultural shift from reactive to proactive that hasn't happened yet.....

Dave