reply to Subaru
It probably needs--- 1- cleaned, 2- new oil filter, 3- new oil nozzle, 4- new oil pumplisted in order of complexity.. any oil burner will get dirty with usage..the two torpedo heaters I have will smoke and flame for the first 30secs, then heat up and run fine.. sounds pretty normal-j--if it aint broke, tweak it!!currently on FiOS (kick aZZ!)
I opened it about 2 months ago before I used the rest of the old kerosene up and cleaned inside, it hardly has that many hours on it but anyways it's fine now.Video