Deep fire titanium pistons , not all that great...

Well as some of you may know I usually praise deep fire titanium pistons. I have them in several AEG's and until recently they have been great. However, lately I have discovered a flaw with them. On 2 occasions so far I had 2 piston bodies break. The problems seems not to lie in the metal gears but the plastic body.

Since these pistons have a full metal rack there is very little "meat" supporting that rack, in fact there is almost none right above the steel rack. The first piston broke as the steel rack was pushed up and broke the little plastic there is at the very end of the piston.

My second one broke in the side track for about 60% of the length of the piston.

This brings me to the second design flaw. The plastic is very cheap and brittle. Compared to a Prometheus piston witch has very solid polycarb body.


I have now installed a Prometheus piston and so far from what I can visually see they appear to be very solid and feature several metal teeth.

I really question the importance of having full metal teeth pistons anyways. As the sector gear engages the first couple of teeth the load from the spring is minimal, only later when more pressure from the spring is putting load on the teeth is having them metal matters. Tm pistons have only 1 tooth and they seem to last very long even at 400 fps as long as ROF is not trough the roof.


Anyways i'm officially off the Deep fire bandwagon and gonna wait a while before jumping in the prometheus bandwagon

[mateba]

Are these the v1 or v2 titanium pistons? The v2 pistons have a little crossection of plastic towards the rear of the piston to increase the body's strength and help keep the metal teeth in place.

[ILLusion]

That little piece of plastic is hardly that supportive.

I've been a strong proponent of the Prometheus pistons for a long time. They have the strongest plastic bodies of any piston I've handled.

[Syn]

I reinforced it with guess what....JB weld on the interior where the backside of the teeth fit into the groove of the piston. The I filed down the excess with a round file and tested the spring to make sure it does not snag.

[CDN_Stalker]

A problem I found with two of the DF Titanium pistons is in one gun, the piston would jam up on the bearing spring guide's thrust bearing every time the piston was cycled (would go back almost to the point of being released, then held there); in another gun it's cycle a half dozen or more times just fine, then seize up on the bearing spring guide. Installing a stock spring guide in each case solved the problem.

[Schwag]

I've heard alot of these complaints. I have the ver1 in my jg mp5 and it's been great for a year, maybe 40,000 bbs at 400fps. And it has a systema bearing spring guide too. Never jams on it.

It's lasted me longer than any other piston but I think I got really lucky.
I went to metal because I was sick of shredding them or having the back get ripped off.

Why does nobody else make a more solid all-metal tooth piston? I assume that if someone did, it would have been mentioned here.

On a related side note it is the ONLY deepfire product I have ever been satisfied with. Most of their stuff was pretty crappy when it first came out around here. Haven't seen much of the new stuff. Is it any better generally?

[ILLusion]

Originally Posted by Schwag

Why does nobody else make a more solid all-metal tooth piston? I assume that if someone did, it would have been mentioned here.

Systema has been manufacturing one for years as an all aluminum piston.

[Schwag]

What are the pros/cons of an all aluminum piston? Never used one.

[CDN_Stalker]

Not V2 mechbox friendly is a good start.

[ILLusion]

exactly. The additional weight plus rigid vibrations it would induce are great gearbox-smashing fun!

(I cracked a "reinforced" gearbox this way.)

[Jayhad]

I have been using a Deepfire full metal in a 8mm Pro-win with a m120 shooting 420ish for 15000bbs on only full auto no complaints yet. I had a systema piston in the build up first and with in 500bbs it was trashed

[CDN_Stalker]

Reinforced mechboxes aren't bulletproof, they just take longer to break. PDI 150% in my MP5SD (bearing spring guide, longer inner barrel, stock TM piston/head) for two years broke my Hurricane reinforced mechbox.

[Kos-Mos]

There was a piston review around some time ago, and guess what?

the DF full titanium finished last in all cathegories.

I would go for the Systema new type or prometheus.

The new Modify Polocarb looks promising too. 7 tooth rack and a nice polycarbonate piston.

[Skruface]

Originally Posted by ILLusion

Systema has been manufacturing one for years as an all aluminum piston.

I have a TM AK with stock gears, PDI 150% spring, and Systema aluminum piston + Area1K piston head, and a bunch of Guarder parts. 8 years old, 100,000+ rounds and no issues. I just stripped and cleaned the mechbox to install a Sorbo pad and the last piston tooth shows a tiny bit of wear...all gear teeth are perfect.

[Schwag]

Originally Posted by Skruface

I have a TM AK with stock gears, PDI 150% spring, and Systema aluminum piston + Area1K piston head, and a bunch of Guarder parts. 8 years old, 100,000+ rounds and no issues. I just stripped and cleaned the mechbox to install a Sorbo pad and the last piston tooth shows a tiny bit of wear...all gear teeth are perfect.

So is there any advantage to a aluminum piston? Sounds all bad.

I'll post a thread when the deepfire dies. Let's see if I can set a record. It's in a jg mp5 ras metal body. Not a huge rof but I do shoot in long bursts at 400fps
I've been very lucky with the gun in general.

What's a sorbo pad? I get this visual of Hercules trying to stop some anal leakage.