New boiler burner assembly.

The short of the story is that I get a call from my mother last night that her house is cold and the boiler isn't working. She was away for a few days. I go over and try to troubleshoot. The thermostats were calling for heat, the pumps were coming on, the burner was not. I pull the cover off to inspect and found the inside of the boiler to be covered in black soot. I didn't do anything to it. She had already had a a heating guy coming out this morning to do some minor fixes leaking pump flanges and maintenance on the boiler.



The boiler is an HB Smith model g100-w-4 from 1989. It also has a standing pilot.



The boiler guy pretty much had the same reaction I did to the soot. That it wasn't good. I wasn't there, but my mother told me what she knew. The boiler guy said something about having the burner cleaned to get it operational again. He said they don't do that sort of thing and even if you found someone, probably not worth the money. He suggested replacement. I don't know exactly what needs to be cleaned with the burner, but I am thinking that if a replacement can be had, that should do the trick.



I know this isn't good specific information, but does anything have ideas as to what would be clogged on the burner to make it soot? Could a burner replacement possibly work?

New boiler burner assembly.