Sometimes leaks can be a good thing.... I've had a slow leak in this gun virtually since new.... It lost about 600 psi the first day, then 3-400, then a trickle.... I tested everything with soapy water and couldn't find anything, which pretty much meant it was the valve.... I pulled the breech, and found a very small leak coming out the exhaust port, so it was the poppet that wasn't sealing on the seat.... I pulled the gun all apart, and on inspecting the seat with a loupe I saw a very small nick on the sealing surface, and a corresponding mark on the soft seal insert on the poppet.... The brass seat was easy to polish, but rather than take a chance on the seal in the poppet I decided to replace the poppet head with a Delrin one which is more suitable for HPA use.... I drove the stem out of the old poppet and reused the stem, and made a new poppet head from a piece of 3/8" Delrin.... Since I didn't have to worry about the OD of the brass poppet, I was able to turn the entire head down to 0.32", which is the diameter of the valve spring, and 0.050" smaller than the original.... I lapped the new poppet against the repaired seat, and reassembled the gun....

The first test shots, with the RVA set at 4 turns out as before, were a bit of a shocker.... Instead of getting 847 fps (22.8 FPE), the velocity was in the high 880s with the occasional 890+ (25.0 FPE).... Obviously the new Delrin poppet was a big improvement.... Since the throat and seat is still the same size, I figure the increase must be from the decrease in head diameter and the corresponding easing of the flow around it.... There was another big change, and this one I expected.... I was able to reduce the hammer spring preload another 2 turns to get back to the "knee" of the velocity curve.... This is because the harder seal material compresses less, and that reduces the amount of hammer energy required to "unstick" the valve from the seat.... It sure is nice to see theory backed up by results....

Bob