A used wood fired forced hot air furnace

[ZShells]

I recently purchased a used Kerr Scotsman wood fired forced hot air furnace. The serial plate on the back puts the manufacture date at 2003. Everything seemed fine until I brought it home...I proceeded to pull the pieces off to clean the unit. Inside was packed with inches of ash (I doubt they ever cleaned it out). After I cleaned out all of the ash I noticed that looking through where the stove pipe attaches I could see a split in the metal sheet.

Note: The inside of this unit is essentially a figure 8 piece of cast iron with the bottom barrel used as the fire box and the top (I'm assuming) used as a heat exchange. The split piece of metal is inside the top barrel. The exterior of both barrels is solid.

My question is this. I have yet to invest the money to run duct work, wiring, etc because I wanted to check on the stove first. Is it safe to use as is? Assuming its safe will its efficiency be affected? Or is it fine to use?

Note: my house is a 1000 sq ft ranch on a daylight basement. The unit is located in the basement.

 

[Jags]

I would really suggest getting a pro to evaluate it. Maybe it could be repaired with little effort. My main concern would be CO escaping into the area where heated air gets distributed to the house. CO - the silent killer.

 

[warno]

+1 on that, I would be concerned about that crack possibly leaking CO gases in the air stream as well.

 

[brenndatomu]

Never heard of that brand before.
Is this a split in the outside of the heat exchanger (as in you could look inside and see outside light) or a split in an internal baffle or some such part internally? Pics? How does the unit seem overall? Any discolored parts on the body from overfiring?