Mq2 horrible inefficiency. Do I need the white spacer on the solenoid plunger?

[Schroeder]

SON= 4.0
CDEL=9.0
CON=40
COFF= 28.5
This is all on a karnivor with the stock STO ram with TRVs, tickler LPR, and karnivor HPR. The HPR is turned up all the way (turning set screw out) until vent and then maybe ¼ turn back in to drop the vent and be reliable. I don't have a chrono but velocity looks good and there is no drop-off at ramp. My peak ROF doesn't seem to be that great. Maybe 12-13 BPS with the halo V35 on setting 4 of 6. Do I just need to crank my lpr up a little and induce some kick for higher ROF?*

The mq2 doesn't have the white spacer. I had the solenoid out of its housing to resolder the wires because I received it basically snipped off. I re-wrapped the coil in electrical taped and stuffed it back into the noid casing. I super glued the bottom shut.*

Everything seems to work except it's HORRIBLY, HORRIBLY inefficient. I'm getting 400-700 shots off a 4000psi fill on a 68/4500 tank.* I don't know what to address. These are my only ideas:

1.) I*don't hear a leak from the grip frame, but I'm wondering if I need to replace the urethane black dot on the face of the solenoid plunger from when I had the assembly apart for the repair.*

2.) Could the solenoid plunger spring be weak? If so, where can I get a new one? Custom cockers listed this as a century spring part, but the link is 404 now:

https://www.mwcomponents.com/locatio...ferrer=century

It seems the original provider has been absorbed. I thought about calling and asking if they had the spring number for the magnetic sensor systems solenoid part number or asking magnetic sensor systems of they'd sell me just the solenoid plunger spring.*

3.) Could I need a new poppet spring? That was listed on custom cockers as McMaster Carr. Part# 9435K74.*

4.) I only added new valve body springs. I didn't chang the poppet seal or it's o-eings because they looked good. I did lube them up nice with dow 33. The static seals on the OD of the valve body and between the valve and solenoid housing were covered in dow 55.*

What can I do to address this efficiency issue? I can't even tune the gun without having to run for a $10 air fill at the local dive shop every hour. It's so bad it's almost worrisome to try to use in a game because I won't be able to use even 3 pods.**

[Schroeder]

I had to report back, so others could learn. I removed my MQ to lube the poppet since vantrepes suspected it may be sticking based on my description of some of the issues. I polished the inside of the brass valve body with a polishing wheel on a dremel. It did a fantastic job. The main cause of the issue was that I did NOT have my poppet spring in place. Pretty embarrassing to have made such a dumb mistake. The balanced valve design will close the poppet and the gun will behave as normal- for the most part. The air filling up behind the poppet and closing it must take much longer without the poppet spring though. During this prolonged period air is venting out down the barrel. I would think I would have been able to lower my dwell to nothing because the lack of a spring was effectively doing this (I think). I'd think my HPR could have been set very low, and I'd still be shooting super hot. This wasn't the case though. I still have tuning to do, but it's really, really close. I used this for an entire day of play. Issues I had with ball breaks may have been due to crap paint because I also had hopper issues that were 100% due to crappy paint. Here's where I am at. I do not have the white spacer installed. I do have the poppet spring installed. lol. Also worth noting; I went one size down on both o-rings on the valve body. I really tightened up the back IVG screw to hold the solenoid housing against the valve body and it still barely aligned the valve body hole with the hole in the top chamber and bolt.

SON= 3.5ms
CDEL= 5.6ms
CON= 28ms
COFF= 26.5ms
tickler LPR is turned up pretty high. I fiddled with that off and on through the day. I have an inception designs LPR I'll be replacing the tickler with.

Thanks for the help, Vantrepes. I hope me documenting this mistakes prevents others from making it.