ProSport Vortek velocity loss

[Springman]

    Installed a Vortek Pg2 spring in my Prosport yesterday, and lost 35 FPS.  I used the supplied tacky grease sparingly, disassembled and wiped off the spring 2X, thinking grease might be causing excess spring drag.  No luck, factory spring @ 625 w/HN FTT, Vortek spring @ 590.  IIRC I gained a few FPS when I installed this kit in R9 and HW50. This grease is much 'stickier' (like very thick honey) than grease supplied with both kits for HW guns.  Any help?   Don 

[wimpanzee]

Did you replace the piston seal too, or just the spring?

[Springman]

    No, just used original seal, you know, 'change 1 thing at a time'.

[Roadworthy]

You may wish to contact Vortek.  It is possible they shipped the wrong kit.

[Springman]

      Label says TX200, ProSport SHO.  Only lost 1.6 FPE (12.9 to 11.3)  I'm at 4800", so performance is compromised.  Before break-in, this gun shot the 14.66 FTT's @ 700 fps at 300' elev.  It's just recently broken in (600 to 630) in the last 500 shots or so, another reason i left the original seal intact.  I'll disassemble and see if original spring will fit in Vortek guide, if not, I'll put it back to stock and call Vortek.  Thanks for your help, Don

[EMrider]

I installed a new Vortek SHO kit in my hw97k a few months ago and it gave be about 12fpe.   That is well below spec for the SHO kit.  It is possible that they shipped me the wrong spring, but it was clearly labeled as an SHO kit.  Others have recently reported similar experiences.  I kept the Vortek kit as a spare and went with a JM kit instead.  I prefer the shot cycle of the longer/thinner JM springs.



R

[Springman]

  Replaced original AA spring, tophat, regreased with Vortek tacky grease, spring twang now gone, but velocity settled in at 580 ish, after 30 shots.                   
Maybe looking at grease now.  Has anyone used Buzzy's Slick Honey as a spring lube??? I've used it for 'O' rings on single-stroke pneumatics's, and it works well for that, it's very slick, but not very viscous.

[Springman]

     Just got off the phone with Tom @ Vortek.  Going to disassemble and clean all grease from piston, spring and compression chamber, replace AA seal with Vortek, (self-lubed) and use moly leftover from previous kits.  Great cust service! He spent 15 min on the phone with meto come up with this fix?  Will keep u posted. Don

[wimpanzee]

I've only taken my hw95 apart a couple times, but comparing the vortek grease to some molykote77, I just went with the molykote. Haven't taken it apart since then, but its shooting a solid 16fpe with H&N FTT.

[Springman]

    Got the combination figured out!!  Many thanks to Dan in Bozeman for pointing out what should have been obvious! After going thru all my .22  pellets, I ended up with H&N FTT's @ 604-638 with original AA spring, and H&N Baracuda Green @ 772-781, 25 shots each. but wait, it gets better! with Vortek spring and guide, FTT's came in at 614-637, and Bar Green at 787-791!!! 10 shots string only 4fps extreme spread. All 10 I covered with a nickel at 30 yds!  I think I'll have to reserve this gun for squirrels only, at 8 cents a pellet, no starlings!  I guess this really illustrates the fact that a springer works as a system, and 1 change can affect the whole balance and efficiency of that system!  Thanks for all your help, guys!   Don

[DanD]

    Got the combination figured out!!  Many thanks to Dan in Bozeman for pointing out what should have been obvious! After going thru all my .22  pellets, I ended up with H&N FTT's @ 604-638 with original AA spring, and H&N Baracuda Green @ 772-781, 25 shots each. but wait, it gets better! with Vortek spring and guide, FTT's came in at 614-637, and Bar Green at 787-791!!! 10 shots string only 4fps extreme spread. All 10 I covered with a nickel at 30 yds!  I think I'll have to reserve this gun for squirrels only, at 8 cents a pellet, no starlings!  I guess this really illustrates the fact that a springer works as a system, and 1 change can affect the whole balance and efficiency of that system!  Thanks for all your help, guys!   Don

Hi Don,
What did Dan in Bozeman point out? What was the final combination that worked?

[Springman]

    He suggested starting over with pellet selection.  Anytime something changes in the system, you may have to find another pellet. In this case, I got almost all of the velocity lost due to elevation back, just by changing pellets.  It'll be interesting to see how this setup performs down at 300' now, with these changes.  I didn't have a baseline for this gun with these pellets @ 300', it was approx 20fps slower than my R9 with the FTT's, and the R9 shot Greens at 800fps for 17.8 FPE, IIRC