Internal upgrades help

[Eddie Priest]

Hello I'm new to airsoft and brought an MP5 it's metal internals and part plastic shell. Gun fires really well.

Have seen on a lot of guns for sale on this site a great list of upgrades and just wondered if anyone could explain what they do? May help a lot of other users also.

Thanks

[laurence]

Re: Internal upgrades help

What do you meant 'part plastic shell? the gearbox shell is plastic? or the gun?

Upgrades:

-Motor
Ok so this is basically what makes your gearbox tick. Your battery provides it with current and when you pull the trigger, the circuit is completed and your motor will turn your gears. There are two main types of upgrade motor.

High torque- this is a powerful motor and does not have as much speed as a high speed motor, however, it reaches its top speed faster than a high speed motor, these are good for guns with powerful springs or guns that are used predominantly on semi and you want good trigger response.

High speed- Basically the opposite of a high torque, so not as much power, but it has a good rof (rate of fire), but takes longer to reach its top speed and so would be practical in a lower power set-ups.


-Gears
So these are what are tuned by the motor and in turn pull back the piston. There are quite a few different types of gears for different set-ups and you want to choose the right one for what you are aiming for. Also, there are 4 different types of gear in your gearbox. These are:
-Pinion gear
-Bevel gear
-Spur gear
-Sector gear

High speed- These usually come with ratios before them and the most common one is “13:1”, the numbers mean how many turns of the bevel gear it takes to turn the sector gear, so for 13:1 gears the bevel gear has to rotate 13 times to rotate the sector gear once and thus pull the piston back once. The lover the number on the left, the higher speed the gears will be.

High torque- These will also come with ratios, so a high torque will come with maybe 36:1 or 72:1 which just means they have twice the torque of normal gears (18:1), however, they may also come with something that looks like 300:100, this just means that it is 3x the torque of normal gears or 72:1, so 200:100=36:1 and 300:100=72:1

Standard gears- These come in the ratio of 18:1, and will provide an average of torque and speed. As long as you have a strong set of standard gears, these can be used for high speed or high torque set-ups providing you have an adequate motor.

-Piston
Now, this is the part which gets pulled back by the gears and slams forward, pushing the air out and into your barrel, propelling the bb. They are usually made out of plastic/polycarbonate; however you can get aluminium pistons; however I really would not recommend them as they do not perform any better and are just pointless really. They are usually compatible with most gearboxes, however for TM’s PSG1, SR25’s, or the AA L85 they use elongated pistons so you would need to buy a longer piston for those set-ups. The piston will most commonly have 15 teeth but it a sensible idea to buy or modify your piston to have the second tooth removed as this will aid AOE (angle of engagement, this will be covered shortly) and can prevent your piston stripping. They usually come with the last tooth being metal as it is the tooth that is put under the most stress, however, you can get pistons with 3-15 metal teeth and these are usually good for set-ups with powerful springs. AOE stands for angle of engagement; this is where the sector gear engages the rear tooth of the piston. This wants to be at around the 12-o’clock position as this will put minimal stress on the gears and will not slow your rof (rate of fire) too much. It can also prevent your piston from stripping.

-Piston head
This fastens to the end of the piston and provides the seal between the piston and cylinder. It is usually plastic in most gun, however you can get aluminium ones. However I would recommend just sticking with a plastic one as it will perform the same as a metal one, but put less stress on the gearbox and cylinder head. It comes with an O-ring to seal against the cylinder and so you want a good air-seal here to prevent fps loss. Piston heads also usually come with ports at the frot and many people think the job of these is to allow air to flow into it and push the O-ring out creating a better air-seal, however, its actually to maintain even pressure within the cylinder while firing, theres a good video on youtube of it; so ports, are most definitely a good idea. When upgrading, it is a good idea to get a ‘bearing piston head’ as this will serve the same purpose as a bearing spring guide and will mean that the spring can provide a more consistent power output due to it not being twisted when compressed. You can also get “silent piston heads”, however, these are a waste of time and can lead to air-loss and consistency issues so I would recommend just a plastic bearing piston head.

-Spring
This is the part that gives the piston the power to go forward and compress the air to fire the bb. There are different powers of spring and with AEG springs, it is usually ‘m’ followed by a number such as 120 so it would be an m120 spring. In japan they have a 1J power limit so you won’t see more than a m95 there, however her in the UK, the power is usually 350fps limit so an m100 will give you around that fps (an m110 may be pushing it a little). You can work it out usually but taking the ‘m120’ as meaning 120 meters per second which roughly equates to around 400 feet per second.

-Spring guide
This is what the ‘bottom’ or ‘end’ of the spring sits on. In a stock gun these will usually just have a washer on them, but upgrade spring guides will usually be bearing spring guides which can mean the spring can turn on them. This can result in a more consistent FPS out-put as the spring is not twisted when compressed and so can compress more fluidly thus meaning more consistent power. These are gearbox specific so be sure to get the right one for your gearbox when upgrading.

-Cylinder
This is what your piston travels through to compress the air. These are commonly made out of brass in stock guns and can be replaced by Teflon coated or ribbed cylinders which can yield a better compression. It is important to balance the volume or air in your cylinder with the volume of the barrel so you are shooting the right amount or air. So you will want to get a cylinder that is for that gun as it will have ports in the side to compensate for your barrel length.

-Cylinder head
This is what fits into the cylinder and channels the air from the cylinder and into the hop-up. Stock cylinder heads are predominantly 2-piece with the nozzle being metal and the body being plastic. I personally prefer to upgrade mine with a metal, 1-piece cylinder head as this guarantees no air loss through the join of the nozzle and body. They also have an O-ring that goes round the outside to create a good seal with the cylinder. I also prefer getting a double O-ring cylinder head as this can yield even better compression. These are also gearbox specific so you want the right one for your gearbox.

-Air nozzle
Now, this fits over the cylinder head nozzle and moves back and forward with the tappet plate (covered later) feeding the bb’s into the hop-up and transferring the air. These are usually plastic in stock guns and provide a relatively good seal. However, it is a good idea to get one with an internal O-ring to prevent additional air-loss. These are gun specific so it’s important to get the right one for your gun.

-Tappet plate
Ok so this is the bit that goes back and forth with the air-nozzle and feeds bb’s into the hop-up. They are plastic in stock guns and I have personally never seen a metal one. In my opinion, the more flexible it is, the better, as it is less likely to snap and will just flex. They do not need to be upgraded usually so you can leave this stock. It works as it has a small tab at the back which is picked up by a small nub on the sector gear which pulls the tappet plate back as it rotates, this allows a bb to come up from the magazine and then be pushed forward into the hop-up chamber when the tappet plate is then released forward.

-Trigger/Switch assemble
These are predominantly found the in the gearbox but can be found on the outside (p90’s, M14's) and are made of plastic with metal trigger contacts of course. When you pull the trigger, it either pulls or pushes a 'bar' forward into the other two contacts thus completing the circuit and thus sending current to your motor. These do not necessarily need to be upgraded but can wear out or could have a build up of carbon due to lipo use so would need to be replaced.

I know its alot but i have a word document i wrote with all the parts and such and their uses for this purpose

[Eddie Priest]

Re: Internal upgrades help

Thank you mate much appreciated

[Eddie Priest]

Re: Internal upgrades help

To your question the gun is part plastic all internals are metal

[laurence]

Re: Internal upgrades help

Okay, well then parts above apply to you, this is my recommendation of what you wanna upgrade...

Part 3- parts that need or I recommend upgrading
Ok so there is a lot of misguided info out there and some people just buy new parts, oblivious to the benefits or pointlessness of them. One person who I get frustrated with is Mr ASTKilo23 on YouTube who does some incredibly pointless upgrades and even made the consistency of one of his guns worse on one upgrade video. May I also note that it is a good idea to buy some air-seal parts from the same manufacturer as those parts were made for each other; So if you are buying an SHS cylinder head, it would be a good idea to buy an SHS air seal nozzle and cylinder as they will ensure a good seal and fit due to them being made to fit each other. Not a necessity but something to think about.
So basically the parts I would recommend upgrading in your gearbox for a moderate set-up and to just increase stock performance are:
-Air nozzle with O-ring
-Bearing spring guide
-Ported piston head (if yours is not already), with bearings (if you really wanna….most upgrade piston heads come with bearings anyway)
-Metal 1-piece cylinder head
-And of course, hop-up and barrel (covered in the next section)

Ok so I choose these parts as they are the most likely to increase stock performance, by improving compression/air seal and improving consistency.

-Shimming
Another extremely important thing to do when opening your gearbox is to correct your shimming. There is an extremely good guide here:


-Greasing
After shimming your gears, I would recommend re-greasing the gearbox. This may not be so necessary on some of the better guns but if you have a Chinese clones, then the gearbox will be covered in snot. Just get a rag and wipe it off the gears, the gearbox case, and check inside your cylinder and make sure there is no grease on the inside of that. Like so:
After you have done that, you want silicone based grease; I personally use white silicone grease which you can just spray on. The reason for this is because if conventional grease or WD40 comes into contact with an O-ring, it can rot the rubber but a silicone based grease wont. So squirt a little on the piston rails, some underneath and on top of the gears; the idea is for it to just be lubrication, not a green/brown casing inside the gearbox. Also put a little around the cylinder head O-ring before re-fitting that as It will cover up any tiny tiny holes around the edge. Next you probably want some silicone spray, if not then you can just use a very small amount of grease. Squirt some onto your finger, just a little, and then smear it on the inside of your cylinder, just to aid the seal in there too. If you put too much in it, then it could get into your hop-up and play around with your accuracy so use it sparingly.


This will just increace the consistency of your gun, make sure your air-seal is perfect and shot-shot consistency is good.

[Eddie Priest]

Re: Internal upgrades help

Cheers bro

[Bachelarius]

Re: Internal upgrades help

I'd recommend having a read of this, then bookmark it for reference:

http://eagle6.co.uk/beta/the-airsoft-players-manual/

Great read to get you going

[laurence]

Re: Internal upgrades help

The internal stuff is literally what ive just put.....is less detail