Need Opinion on Some Mild Upgrades

[GR]

Hello fellow forum users!

About a month ago I made this thread regarding upgrading trigger response on my 1.5 year Echo1 CPM (AKS-74U). From what I've worked through, my overall plan is to get 9.6v NiCd battery, and possibly basic MOSFET...

Meanwhile, while surfing r/Airsoft, I stumbled on this thread, and it made me wonder about doing some further upgrading. Following what the thread says, I found a few parts I think my AK can, hopefully, benefit from.

The list:
- SHS Metal Air Seal Nozzle
- Modify Accurate Hop-Up Chamber
- *Still looking for bucking, hopefully something $10 and under, i.e. this*
- Tenergy 9.6v 1600 mAh Stick type battery
- (unsure) SHS ver3 motor
- (unsure) Some basic MOSFET

* I would prefer to stray away from any electrical modifications (mainly MOSFET) due to the fear of screwing it up big time.

I need some opinions on the current upgrade list, and if it makes sense with the goal of improving trigger response, accuracy, and precision for an Echo1 AKS-74U.

Thanks everyone for any inputs!

[Bellerophon]

To start, improving trigger response and accuracy at the same time constitutes more than just 'mild' upgrades, I'd recommend you stick to one thing at a time.
Don't worry too much about screwing up electrical modifications, as long as you don't hurt yourself or set fire to anything (really encouraging, I know). Wire is cheap, solder is cheap, connectors are cheap. Electrically, a stock AEG is about as simple as circuits get, being basically a motor and a switch (the trigger). With a mosfet it's only slightly more complicated than that.
That said, you shouldn't need a mosfet for just a 9.6V nickel battery. It'd be nice to have, in case you're switching to a beefier battery later on.
That motor is pretty nice, I run one in my MP5, you'll need something like an 11.1V lipo battery to get a noticeable benefit, this of course necessitates a mosfet.
Don't bother with the 'enhanced' hop up chamber unless your gun's stock hop up adjustment is loose or otherwise unstable.
A good hop up rubber, if properly adjusted, is the part that'll give you the most noticeable improvement. No idea about the one you linked, but personally I can attest to the PDI W-Hold as well as the G&G Green as both excellent.
As for the nozzle, be very careful that it's not too different in length to your current one. If it's different by more than ~0.5mm, it'll mess up your gun's feeding and air seal.

That's all I can think of.

[GR]

Thanks for the great remarks. This makes thing much clearer.

I'm guessing I should mainly get the bucking, battery, and potentially the nozzle.

Few questions:
1) Any idea how good Lonex/SHS/Wii Tech/Modify buckings are? This is due to them being the only manufacturers I find at Canadian retailers (AParts, AD, TA) - i.e. AParts only has a PDI W rubber sleeve, but not the bucking itself.
2) How much of an improvement can a new nozzle provide? I know it's supposed to improve air seal, but that's about as much as I know.

Thanks once again for a great reply.

[Bellerophon]

The rubber sleeve IS the bucking, what you might be thinking of is the nub (the tiny little rubber tube that applies the pressure). The stock nub should be fine unless you're running a flat hop/R-hop setup, in which case you'd need a flat type nub, the same type that's helpfully packaged with the Modify set you've linked to. I have no personal experience with flat hop setups, and R-hop is more of a DIY thing that takes a lot of effort, but yields great results, I encourage you to look up R-hop but for now it's probably not worth the effort.
As for the nozzle, a properly fitted air nozzle with an internal rubber O-ring is used to improve air seal, which improves shot-to-shot power consistency which potentially improves accuracy. Also, if your current nozzle misfeeds a lot, a new one can potentially fix the problem, but if not then it's more likely to cause feed problems than to fix them. On it's own, a new nozzle won't give much noticeable effect, it's only when all the other pneumatic components have had their air leaks fixed that you may notice an improvement in consistency. Air seal is more a problem for marksmen's rifles, if you're interested in the topic read more here but be warned that pursuit of a 'perfect' air seal will consume many hours and cause lots of headaches. At least teflon tape is cheap.

Something that might not constitute an 'upgrade' per se but which will probably help out quite a bit: get a cleaning rod (I got mine from Canadian tire) and clean out the gunk from the inside of your barrel. A new barrel comes packed with grease from the factory, you've had yours for a while so probably all that's left is just a thin coating that would get pretty dusty. Clean the barrel before and after each game, keep it clean, dry and free of scratches and you'll find it works a lot better.

[Shamusodoofus]

An important thing to note if you decide to upgrade compression parts, specifically the nozzle and cylinder head. Although all aftermarket parts are made to TM spec, they are not perfect. I have found it best to match the nozzle with a cylinder head of the same brand. Just because a nozzle is advertised as having an o-ring to improve seal doesn't mean it will. I have purchased $15 Modify nozzles and used it with another brand of cylinder head (TM in this case) only to have compression worsen over the stock OEM nozzle. Having said this, I would hold off on replacing the nozzle unless you plan on replacing the nozzle and cylinder head together.

The Reddit post you linked is very exaggerated. I do not doubt the poster's accuracy improved substantially but I can guarantee you will not see such crazy improvements. DBOYS or any other cheap Chinese airsoft brands notoriously shoot inconsistently from the factory. This is generally caused by over lubed internals and garbage piston o-rings. I have an A&K SR-25 that had an over 120 FPS variance when I first got it. You can imagine just how bad the grouping would be when your FPS fluctuates between 290 and 410. Perhaps the most beneficial thing the airsoft shop did, for the poster, is clean up the internals and created a more consistent air seal. Consistent FPS will yield greater accuracy. At 15m the hop up plays a tiny role, I can confidently say that the change of hop up isn't responsible for his accuracy improvement. Now don't me wrong, I am not saying a quality hop up is not important, I'm saying in this particular scenario the hop up had very little, if any, effect on the accuracy. From the many ECHO1 guns I've owned and worked on, I can confidently say your gun is very unlikely to suffer from such crazy FPS variances.

Seeing as you're only running an M90 spring, I would highly recommend the PDI W-hold bucking. It's easy to install and will serve your purposes greatly. You will likely notice an improvement in effective range from this mod alone.

If you want improved trigger response I would highly recommend a MOSFET unit, and LiPo battery. Your trigger response won't suffer as your battery drains if you use a LiPo over a NiCd or NiMH. The MOSFET will decrease the resistance in your circuit, thereby allowing electricity to flow more efficiently giving the motor slightly more juice.