Soot

I had heard somewhere that salt will help remove soot, and I had a sooty problem with my Monitor. The thing won't work right because the flames aren't burning clean, and the flame rod gets all covered in soot and (shorts it I think.) Not sure what exactly what would happen, I put a little pile of table salt on the burner and heated it up with my torch. I was amazed to see many many burning miniscule dots of orange racing in swirly twirly paths. They persisted for a long time and were mesmerizing to watch. I was encouraged by disappearance of some soot, so I put a handful of salt on the burner and four tablespoons around the outer edge and closed it back up. Then the diesel lit, ran, burned out as usual, BUT there was still an orangish yellow light burning away for about 5 minutes when there should be none. (I could tell there was no diesel being pumped in by holding a magnet next to the solenoid.) Then that burned out. I started the heater again, and it went through the preheating process, then the solenoid pump went on, but no flame started up. I waited, and knew something was wrong, maybe not enough oxygen, so I turned it on and off twice in a row. The second time it sounded like a dud firecracker and went fwop!......FWOP! I heard rattling as what sounded like little pebbles went shooting out the exhaust, and a candle like white vapor came out in little streams. I hurriedly unplugged it, checked all the seals, let it cool off, and tentively turned it on again. No explosion, and in fact it has worked great since. I adjusted the solenoid, and hoped it was at a better fuel to air ratio- which so far it must be.