There is an extremely strong oil odor through out the house. There is also a considerable amount of black crud on the basement floor by what I am assuming is the blower. Suggestions?

Call for service on your burner.

Dear Sir, Let me say first that a furnace Normally has a 20 to 25 year warranty on a heat exchanger. It usually means a professional will change out the heat Xchanger and you have to pay for labor and get the part free.
If clean the soot up and the furnace is still blowing out soot in front of your registers or vents. You still could have a possibly dangerous situation with something else, Maybe another cracked heat xchanger. Gas pressure problems, rollout switch, bad flue or stopped up flue.etc,etc. I would definitely call a professional.
Thanks

It sounds like you may have 2 problems, a cracked heat exchanger and too rich of a mixture. You can smell oil, but not carbon monoxide. You need to take care of this quickly. Likely it is too big of a problem for us to help you solve.

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Originally Posted by jim seaton

There is an extremely strong oil odor through out the house. There is also a considerable amount of black crud on the basement floor by what I am assuming is the blower. Suggestions?

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Mr. Seaton, Just off the top of my head it sounds like the nozzle is bad or pumping too much oil before it fires. The oil/air mixture is too rich. One more thing before I get into problems that I don't want too hit you with is the draft could bad or wind blowing backwards down the flue. If this doesn't solve your problem. I need too know what type furnace and if you also have soot in front of your air vent. If the first part of this paragraph is not satisfactory the please feel write back with your regular e-mail address.
Thank You! Jim Farrington. My E-mail address is [email protected]