AEG Upgrading and Basic Tips

[Philby21]

I've wrote this recently as I've seen a few posts about how to upgrade this and that and thought this might help people out a bit, if anyone has any ideas for improvements or other general hints and tips then go for it!

 

Firstly, this article isn’t going to magically tell you how to upgrade every AEG ever built to maximum range, accuracy and ROF!  What it will do is tell you how to find this out for yourself and warn you of what some of the pitfalls are that I’ve picked up on in doing my own upgrading.

 

A bit of background before I begin though.  I don’t claim to be an airsoft expert, I’ve been playing for a couple of years now and don’t get out anywhere near as much as I’d like to.  I did the same thing that most new players do and bought a pistol first, I’ll admit it’s not the best thing to do but will say that CQB games using pistols are HUGE fun!!  I then bought a second hand SRC G36C from a trusted friend that served me well, right up to the point that the sector gear broke and stripped the piston of its teeth, and this is where I began learning about upgrades.  I originally started just wanting to get it up and running well again but it kind of grew a bit from there!

 

General Advice:

 

If you only own one AEG that you use regularly and it’s working well – LEAVE IT ALONE!  The last thing you want to do is start tinkering and then render your only decent weapon a complete wreck.  You’re better off waiting until you either have more than one or it breaks, otherwise find a good tech who can do the work for you.

 

Forums and YouTube are a goldmine of information; read, read, read, read, read.  Learn what different parts are called and how to describe them, then learn how to use the search function on forums – airsoft has been around for a while now, if you have a question about something then it’s a pretty safe bet that someone else has already asked it and there will no doubt be multiple answers or options.  Search and search again before starting a brand new thread and annoying all the regulars who see the same questions over and over and over and over … you get the idea.  Also, most Google searches usually include most forums, if a search on your favourite site (like this one) doesn’t turn up what you want then try again in Google – it uses different methods so may give better (or worse) results.  Learn from others, if someone’s thread says “I’ve just done this and my gearbox exploded!!1!1!!” – then don’t do that!

 

Watch guides on how to dismantle and reassemble gearboxes, and always open them extremely carefully, I cannot stress this strongly enough.  There’s a surprising amount of tension in main springs and if everything explodes all over the place you will lose a lot of very fiddly little bits.  Okay, it wasn’t an AEG but it took me about an hour to find a very small screw from a pistol hop unit, under a dining table, on a dark carpet, and the screw was black.

 

Don’t be afraid of breaking something, most bits are not too expensive so if something does go catastrophically wrong it (hopefully) shouldn’t be too costly to replace. At some point you will break something or an adjustment you make will go badly wrong, it’s a lot easier buying a new part and starting again than trying to bodge a dodgy repair that could make things a lot worse later on.

 

Don’t expect the most expensive parts to work.  I bought a Laylax hop unit and just can’t get it to work in my gun, which is a shame as it’s a beautiful piece of kit. Upgrading can be very much trial and error, working out which bits work best together and that doesn’t necessarily mean all the top end stuff.  If you’re experimenting then it’s worth spending less to begin with, cheaper if it breaks and cheaper doesn’t always mean poor quality, brands like SHS/Rocket Airsoft (RA) are definitely worth a look.

 

Buy a decent, narrow tip soldering iron for any wiring work and practice with it – I did electronics at uni so this wasn’t a problem for me but the last thing you want is for your build to fail for the sake of a dry soldered connection somewhere.  It’s also worth getting one of those little “helping hands” gadgets that will hold parts and wires etc, that’ll leave your hands free to hold the iron and solder.  Also buy a desolder tool, the vacuum/pump type are only a few quid and usually work a treat, remember to regularly clean the bits out of it though.

 

Deans connectors – these are one of the most simple and easy upgrades you can do, and you will be amazed at the difference they make even on a stock gun, plus they’re not exactly expensive.

 

Air seal is king in any build; forget barrels, fast gear sets and mosfets, if you haven’t got a good air seal then the rest is just window dressing.

And lastly, don’t believe for a second that any build will turn out cheap!  You can make minor improvements (barrel, hop, deans) for not much money but if you’re going to do any gearbox work then the bill will start growing very, very quickly!

 

Tips:

 

Buy one of those cheap magnetic dishes for working on cars/bikes – that way you won’t lose all those fiddly little screws, nuts and springs.

 

Buy a Dremel or a cheap copy from fleabay.  This will be one of the most used items you will buy as it doesn’t matter how much you pay for parts, some things just won’t fit without some adjustment.

 

Heat shrink is awesome stuff, buy different sizes for covering wiring joints, connector contracts and keeping cables together.  You’ll need to use something like a lighter to shrink it though, things like hair dryers don’t produce anywhere near enough heat.

 

Get a decent charger, even if you’re not switching to LiPo, they are definitely worth the money.  I have an Imax B6AC, it’ll charge pretty much anything with the adapters that come with it (I have RC cars so use it for those as well).

 

Avoid cheap mosfets, they’ll either not work or fail mid game and are a false economy.

 

If you’re serious about upgrading then buy a chrono, life is hugely easier if you can test your mods before you get to your regular site only to find out you’re over the fps limit.  And remember that limits are based on 0.2g BBs so if you’re using a heavier weight and your fps seems down account for it.  And don’t panic if it still seems like it’s a bit low, I’ve seen guns running around the 300fps and lower mark that have been amazing

 

Poundland do a great little micro screwdriver set (for £1 obviously!) with a wide range of bits, with one of these you can dismantle virtually any gearobox.

Grow an extra pair of hands – you’ll need them to hold all the various bits in place when you put a gearbox back together!

 

My G36C Upgrades:

 

Base gun: SRC G36C Gen 3 (8mm bearing V3 gearbox)
ZCI 6.02 polished inner barrel
Prometheus purple hop rubber
SHS hi torque motor
Lonex M100 spring
ASG cylinder head
ZCI dual O ring piston head
ZCI anti heat stainless steel cylinder
SHS (RA) piston with 7 steel teeth
SHS 16:1 gears
Lonex delay clip
Airlabs sorbo pad
ZCI 8mm bushings
ZCI shims
Gate Nano mosfet
16awg wiring
Deans connectors
11.1v LiPo
AOE adjustment
Everything else is stock!

 

About £150 on internals, not counting the battery (bought 2, cost £35-40), there is probably another £50-60 of parts that ended up not being used as they didn’t fit properly or failed.  Overall a good £200+ spent!  As I built this over time I didn’t realise how much I’d spent until I sat down to write this, I genuinely thought I’d only spend about £70-80!!

 

At 20m getting groupings in a roughly 8” circle on full auto with the occasional flyer.  Range and consistency are phenomenal.  Running around 285 +/- 3 fps on 0.25g ASG Blasters.  Trigger response is incredibly snappy and a quick flick on the trigger on full auto will fire around 5 or 6 BBs.

 

Externally I’ve replaced the right hand side fire selector as it was missing when I bought it and added a folding front grip, that’s pretty much it.

This thing scares people.  It turned out waaay better than I was expecting.

I hope this is helpful!! 

 

Phil