by vulrath » Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:11 am
Taking the cylinder head off and running some teflon tape around the threads on it wouldn't hurt (though I think that's what Death was talking about). I did that with my L96, and on my compression tests (take the inner/outer barrels off, cock it, then put your finger over the air nozzle on the cylinder head and pull the trigger, and time how long it takes for all the air to leak out and the piston head to finally contact the cylinder head) I got 2 minutes easily (I would have gone longer, but I got lazy; of course, my tests are skewed because the only stock parts on my rifle are the stock, cylinder, trigger unit, and spring guide).
By the way, you can wait on getting a metal spring guide (as far as formal upgrades are concerned). It's not a high-stress part (example: my L96's spring guide - I had a KM Head piston/head and metal spring guide set, and the spring guide on that snapped on the first pull, but the stock one has been going strong on my 550 fps spring for a few months now; my findings were confirmed by members of the ASF sniper community), so it can be put on the bottom of your upgrade list if need be (meaning if it doesn't come in a kit with another part).
Also, you should probably check out the VSR subsection of the sniper rifle forum of airsoftforum. Lots (read: TONS) of information to be had over there.