Wood to oil

[boondocker]

What are the options on changing form a traditional wood fired arch to a oil fired? How much has to be changed to make it work efficiently besides the front and insulation? Hind sight, I should have bought a oil fired back when I bought my CDL. 30X8 Raised flue.

[plattmaple]

That is what we did to our 4x12 arch this year. You will need to build a wall in the firebox to divert the flame so your pans boil right. I stacked fire brick where the back of the grates were. The top needs to hit in the middle of the flame.Then you can cover the wall with blanket. The top of our burner hole in the front is 12 in down from the bottom of the front pan. After I built the front I was told i should have put it 8in down, but ours seems to work ok. You will also want to shorten your smoke stack. We shortened ours to 12ft from 24ft and it made a big difference in the boil in the front pan. We also bought a used ro ten boils into our season. We used 600 gal of fuel oil to make 60 gal of syrup before the ro. We have since used about 150 gal of fuel oil to make 160 gal of syrup since the ro. I will never go back to boiling raw sap for sure. We also love the oil burner. We used to use 40 cord of wood each sugar season, so with the ro I'm sure oil is cheaper. I'm sure someone else will give you some more pointers on here. Hope this helps & good luck. Jeff