a few xvalve/lvl10 questions

[halfHP]

Just had a few things I am trying to sort out - really trying to understand my marker and having trouble finding out a few things. Never really had to delve so deep into the inner workings of my gun until now so forgive me if I am overlooking obvious things. (although I did try to search out threads with this info first.)

First, what is the purpose/effect of the shims that go in the level 10? I read that adding shims causes the gun to vent sooner. What is the effect of this? What is the most desireable end result?

Second, I have been tweaking my ule/lvl10 for the past week or so and finally got it to a point where I was pretty happy as far as trigger action etc. went. Unfortunately the gun seems to really be hogging air even with the lightest spring. There are absolutely no leaks that I can detect, even when submerging in a bucket of water. 2000psi in a size68 air tank wont even shoot 200 paintballs before it goes under the minimum pressure needed to fire the gun. The tank I am testing with has no regulator (my flatline is temporarily out of commission) so I am guessing that has alot to do with the problem but this seems excessive.

[athomas]

The level 10 shims are used to allow the bolt to vent in the event of a stoppage in the breach area.

The optimum amount of shims would push the carrier o-ring back to a point just in front of the vent hole in the bolt. Any forward movement of the bolt would allow the air to start to leak out the vent hole. Too many shims would move the o-ring back too far and the vent hole would be exposed all or part of the time allowing the air to leak constantly or even sporatically depending on the resetting of the bolt.

Many people don't even use shims. The distance between venting and not venting is so small that it is really not a major factor in the resetability of the bolt in the event of a jam.

The hogging of air is very dependent on the velocity, paint quality, barrel length and paint/barrel match. Also, if you are dry firing your marker, it will use more air than when you are firing paintballs.

Your tank has no regulator? I'm guessing that it has a fixed regulator of some sort.

[cphilip]

Well first of all lets get one thing cleared up. The Shims in Level 10 act like the old spacers used to. They determine bolt lock up on return. Just like you used to do when you changed spacers you add or subtract shims to make the thing longer or shorter.

Second about your air usage. Longer bolt springs generaly will result in MORE air usage. Shorter will vent less and so will use less. There are many things that can do this air thing. Not just your level 10. One main thing on the level 10 is using a carrier that is just barely sealing. Too large. You want to err to that side but not overly so. But let me ask you this... Are you talking about dry firing using a lot of air? Because if you are then thats pretty normal. I mean the dump chamber empties all the way when your dry firing. Normaly about half of that air would be retained in shooting with paint in. But not when dry firing. And of course barrel length and porting can change things fairly dramaticaly.

I suggest you use the middle spring on the level 10. Its softer on paint than the short stock but most reliable than the lonbest one. And its a good compromise. Set up the carrier to be tight but just work. And then see how it shoots with paint. Don't really pay attention to its consumption without paint. Also two shims seems about normal length for most people to get bolt lock up at the right time. It rarely varies that much.

[halfHP]

I was shooting paintballs through the gun, barrel etc attached. Thats how I noticed I was wasting 1000+ psi in less than 200 rounds. Shortest spring was used as well.

There was one other thing that I recently did that might be affecting the efficiency. I bought the norise cf but found out too late that my barrel was not compatible and that nobody seems to even sell a compatible barrel. (which really sucks) So I did something stupid and tried to drill in a notch for it at the right spot. Apparrently the spot it was at was angled a little too much so the clicky thing in the frame wasnt engaging on both sides of the hole. We thought we just needed to drill deeper and ended up accidentally drilling all the way through. It doesnt seem to affect velocity or accuracy too much but maybe its allowing more air to leak out during each shot.

Just talked to phone support this morning asking about exchanging my norise cf for one of the new ULE cf ones...really hoping they say yes since I dont have another $150.

[cphilip]

That could be it. Or some of it.

Well there are people here that can do those conversions for you fairly cheap if you do several of them at one time. Also something like a kit can be done and your set. And I can tell you that of the SS bodies the SS no rise is about the only one still seems in some demand. And there are plenty of cheap barrels out there with Mag twist lock in classifieds. So worst case you sell that no rise to someone. You might lose some money but they usually bring around 100 used. Better than the other ones are going for lately.