Bristol Factory Diesel Fireplace

[dcneuro]

I posted in the past problems regarding my diesel heater, which was factory installed by Bristol. I have no idea who else may have been involved in the construction, but do know that it was not Dickinson. I haven't been able to get it to stay lit as the fuel line appeared to be blocked. After disassembling the entire fuel line, I noted that there was a clog at the base of the heater, (illustrated below), at the elbow on the bottom, where the fuel line enters. I took this apart and cleaned it yesterday. I also disconnected the entire bottom third of the unit also illustrated with the red arrows, (just above the air intake). The inside was filled with charcoal dust and what appeared to be a hard charcoal surface of some sort. I cleaned everything out and diesel fuel now flows freely. However, the diesel fuel goes into the base and just lies there and ignites and burns up within seconds. It just seems that I prime the unit, fuel flows, it ignites and burns up within 30 seconds and I have to prime more fuel in again. Also, the unit emits little in the way of heat. Is it possible that the charcoal that I scraped out was part of a wick system of some sort? Is the diesel supposed to just flow into the base for ignition? Isn't the primer supposed to drip fuel every few seconds so you don't have to keep priming it? Does anyone have a similar heater on their boat and can share some insight?

Again, I really appreciate any suggestions or consideration which any of you can make.