Another Guarder TM P226

[jaoquinz]

Hi guys,

New guy here and have been reading this forum for a while now in preparation for my own metal kit upgrade on my trusty TM P226. Been using the sidearm for a year now in outdoor and CQB games and it has never failed me, even after having dropped it at least 10 times on the ground. It was all scratched up and trying to polish plastic made it even more plasticky haha. So after doing the research, for Christmas bought myself a Guarder kit and proceeded the upgrades.

The installation was relatively easy. Mostly "planishing" the BBU, but overall pretty painless. It was making everything cycle smoothly WITH DECENT PERFORMANCE under green gas, that was the most challenging part.

Finally got it to cycle properly after much filing, sanding, and smoothing out the burrs on the Guarder kit, lubing up the contact points and wiping off any excess silicon oil (which would hinder free movement as well).

Areas that might be sticky is the top underside of the slide where the steel barrel would rub against, the frame rails where the slide sits on, the hammer mechanism springy thingies that stick out of the frame (connected to the trigger and valve knocker), and the spring guide rod. Just sand lightly till the anodised paint comes off and polish with a soft cloth. Lots of test fitting. Guarder 150% recoil spring installed and it felt like a dream racking it the first time.

When all was done and slide operation was smooth, the problem with power is evident immediately. Shots consistency were erratic and gas venting occured at high ROF. Compared to my newer Hi-Capa 4.3 on green gas, the Guarder P226's kick was a little less felt, and cooldown was noticeable because of the metal frame. The first shot was always hot, then the latter shots were noticeably less hot. I would trade a little less cycle time for more kick, and am comtemplating putting a metal rocket valve with a softer stock rocket valve spring for more gas to be put into the kick. The upside of the less kick is that it cycles so viciously with the Guarder recoil spring a more controlled target acquisition was possible under green gas, compared to violent kick of a plastic slide on green gas.

PDI piston head installed and that was tight on the stock nozzle, but the difference was dramatic compared to the stock cup piston. However, it wasn't as reliably working as a stock plastic gun, as was expected with any self upgraded guns. Trigger pull was spongy, but the Guarder 150% hammer spring was too strong, even if it did soften up after 2 mags shot through the gun. So I added a spacer (one gearbox nylon bushing) under the stock hammer spring instead to tighten up the trigger pull a little.

Got 35-40 shots out of one mag fill of green gas. Stock valves.

Here's the result. Rubbed some sanded alumnium dust from the sandpapers onto the top slide by hand and wiped it in with a soft cloth, and the result was a gunmetal finish that complimented nicely with the black frame.















TM P226 (One year old)
Guarder FMU
VFC steel threaded outer barrel
Guarder 150% recoil spring
Stock hammer spring
PDI piston head
KM 6.04mm teflon coated inner barrel
Stock mag valves (realigned the opening of the valves upwards and relubed the o-rings)

I realised in my past 2 weeks of online research that the information for installing the guarder kit is at best, sparse. Found a norwegian website that had a step by step for the G&P kit, and that was the most helpful guide so far.

I wish that I have a chrono to test the mods done to this gun. I'm not sure if the sticky piston head on the stock nozzle is a problem. Some say it isn't a problem, some say it the nozzle should move freely and spring back into place on its own.

Also tried glueing a piece of cut nylon bushing on the mag catch, so that the mags would sit higher up and have a better seal on the nozzle inlet. Still gas was venting. Tried emptying an entire clip of green gas on the stock 4.3 and there wasn't any gas vent at all, so I'm thinking that the sticky nozzle wasn't spring back in time to receive the gas. The stock TM nozzle isn't broken yet, and some people say a SD POM kit would mate best with the PDI piston. Can somebody shed some light on this please?

Any tips and advice from FMU P226 guys would be great.

Overall, even with the seemingly lower FPS and less violent kick (compared to a plastic slide on green gas), I love my full metal P226. Already did a G&P MBK on my TM M4A1 a couple of months back, I think I'll do the Guarder kit on my TM DE later, but I'll like to tweak this P226 first to it best before attempting that. Metal feels good. Not practical I must admit, but it feels goooood.