Which small screw to line up with what?

I put it back together eventually and lubed everything generously. The piston's screw was tight, as it was loctited by ILLusion himself when I purchased it from him. I test fired 3 mags each with 7 BBs each, and it still has the same problem. Since I cleaned the upper assembly, the slide racks back super smooth and there's no more roughness in the nozzle's forward and back motion either. I still have no idea what the problem is. If its a mag issue, then I don't know what it could be.

Do you have experience with KM high flow valves?

When you installed the KM high flow valve, have you put the correct shims in for correct strike height?

Has the gun worked fine before with the KM high flow valve in the magazine?

The screw for holding the valve blocker! Yup, that's a bitch to get in there properly.

Hmm, interesting. If the shims weren't installed the valve won't open all the way - is this correct Hitman? I do understand that the gun worked fine before the freezing incident (right?), so I have a feeling that the high flow was installed at least half-decently.

Huh. I just read the most recent posts in ILLusion's Hi-Capa thread; Slono, you said you installed the kit yourself with no prior experience. You got balls, man - but did it work after you installed the kit? Personally, I tightened the slide rails on my Socom Gear (I know, its just a WE - nasty "tolerances", I agree) and found it works just fine in indoor weather... and anything above 10C - however, if the operating temperature is lowered, or moisture is added to the picture (not sure which one it is yet), the gun will need a really good cleaning of everything in order to function properly again. Interestingly enough, it suffers from semi-"cooldown" effects, sort of like those that Slono is facing with his, in that many strikes of the valve knocker just don't have enough oomph to kick the slide back fully and do much more than give a slight puff of gas to the BB. Unfortunately, I have no idea what causes this - but its something to consider...? Perhaps someone can tell me wtf is going on with mine? lol

I still think you should take a closer look at those mag seals. Like Hitman said, the rubber used on those tends to crack when frozen - that would be a likely causation of your ineffective gas use (but I have no idea why it works sometimes and doesn't other times - maybe its just a small crack?). Lube the fuck out of that seal if you must (once again, like Hitman said). Or hell, even pull those seals out and dump them in a silicon oil bath - you never know what that may/may not do! I find that's saved my mags a few times.

Oh no! I just saw pics of your Kimber in the 1911 thread... nice looking piece, you've got there. I'm sorry to hear that that's the one that got frozen - though its nothing that a few new mags won't be able to fix, from the sounds of things. Perhaps find a friend/guy you play with who has MEU/1911 mags (stock, or not) and try one of his out?

As to the flared mag well, which one did you use? Sorry, that was unrelated to helping you out here.

It gets really cold.

Beyond that, it's fine. Just don't fire it with a hot mag or you may crack the plastic parts (nozzle, cylinder bulb.)

Recoil springs don't put any weight at all on the sear, so that statement is incorrect.

I threadlocked it for him.

My bad. Maybe that's just me thinking that from a thread I read a while back on clones. Then again, clones are a whole different world - as Brian's told me in a rant (or two) already.

I'm too lazy to correct my uninformed post - so I hope future readers read this far into the thread lol.

Solon, u I have kjw 1911 and MEU mags at the store, if you want to come test them out you can

This problem was happening before the freezing incident.

He even tried my mags (which work fine in my Warrior) and the problem continued to exist. So it's not the mags.

My verdict is still on a messed up slide/barrel set. What you guys don't know is that his barrel ate the lugs in the slide, causing the slide to lock up to the chamber and have occasional weak shots. Repeated attempts to continue to force it to work without proper lube and experience ended up gouging out quite a bit of material from the slide lugs.

My temporary solution to him at the time was to apply some grease to the barrel, as the tackiness of the grease would allow the slide to "grab" the barrel and pull it back. This temporarily solved the problem, but continued to persist after a short period of time.

Turns out Slono didn't know the difference between oil and grease... and applied a light oil instead of a grease, which is why the problem came back after working for a short while.

Did you apply the grease that I told you to use, Solon?

Ahh ok I see, yeh chewed up lugs could cause that, maybe try putting in the stock plastic outer barrel and see how it works

Yes, white lithium grease was applied that same day to the outer barrel, slide, and rails.

When I load the mag into the gun and then rack the slide sometimes I get a misfire. Once that happens I have to unload the mag, rack the slide again and then put the mag back in before the gun functions. Whether it fires with full power or not is a different story.

I think you should go and see illusion again and get him to order new parts for you. As he said he had a temporary solution. So in time it would have needed replacement and now it sounds like its the time. maybe you should get him to instal the parts for you as well. Illusion is very smart when it comes to things like this. So if he says this part is messed or broken I'm willing to bet he is right.

+1. Do what Jon35 said, it sounds like a solid plan to me.

Bleah... not that I don't like ILLusion, LOL, I just wish I could do it myself so I could learn more and use that knowledge to help others.

Well it sounds like you did it wrong last time. You need new parts thats a fact. maybe illusion will let you watch so you can learn.