Luxe "GT" modification

[tyronejk]

Here's a tidbit of info for anyone interested: Luxe and Vanquish bolt engine parts are nearly interchangeable. Enough so that a V16/GT bolt and powertube will fit in a Luxe 1.0 - Luxe OLED engine with minor modification. I did this to eliminate the bolt spring in the 2.0 engine that's known to eventually fail and replace it with an air-forward bias that should help with bolt stick.

side-by-side comparison before modification (Luxe 2.0 parts are black, Vanquish GT parts are blue):


un-modified Vanquish bolt and powertube in the Luxe engine (the Vanquish bolt is slightly longer)


trimming down the Vanquish bolt


Vanquish bolt after trimming


adding a Delrin spacer to fill in the partial oring groove void left behind



for reference, this is an oring diagram of the Vanquish GT bolt engine (also sold as the "V16" upgrade) showing the different sizes of orings on the powertube that results in a forward air bias

[William the Third]

Unfortunately not all of the images are loading.

[Frmrspec]

tyronejk you can upload them but you have to insert them into the post for them to show.. they don’t automatically do that

[tyronejk]

Ah I see what you guys see from a different computer. For some reason, this page and all images were cached on the original computer I posted from. I re-uploaded the images now William the Third Frmrspec

[William the Third]

tyronejk Works for me now. Looks great!

[ChuckLove]

Please share the results. I've always wanted a v16 in a life and the encore didn't quite fill that roll.

[tyronejk]

Will do. I think I'll be at a field this weekend.

[Frmrspec]

This may be reason enough to get an old luxe…

[tyronejk]

Unfortunately the field i was planning on stopping by to get air and shoot some balls closed early due to rain so i wasn't able to test this fully. But i did pump 100psi into a tank and the gun does cycle normally (although slowly at just 100psi) so i think this should work fine.

[tyronejk]

Update: at 220 psi (seems high, gauge may be off), the V16 core was shooting ~300 and the swapping in the 2.0 parts shot ~285 fps. There were no issues to report, consistency was good, paint handling (shooting rock-hard field paint) was good. The Delrin tip I made and superglued on fell off before I went to the field so I swapped that for an aluminum piece and press-fit it on and it hasn't fallen off after shooting about 3/4 of a case.

Conclusion: I'd say this is a worthwhile modification if you really want to shoot your Luxe 1.0-OLED and avoid FSDO issues that the V16 engine solves. It does require the use of a lathe to make it work and you'll need to find V16 parts somewhere.

[tyronejk]

Update: my teammate used this for a whole event and it worked great without issues.

[JoeSchitt]

Huge shoutout to tyronejk I put a couple hoppers of paint through my Luxe 1.0 with the modified V16 bolt. Shot absolute ropes and was able to drop pressure a bit as it was shooting over 300 (compared to 280s on my 2.0 bolt). Was super consistent over the chrono shooting 286, 286, 283, 286 right off the bat the first few shots (I do find SP/DLX guns to be the most consistent).

I’m running it with the Feathertouch screw in and 18ms dwell. The shot quality is very similar to the stock 2.0 core. Not quite as poofy, but seemed very similar decibel wise and smooth overall. I would love to run an efficiency test on this with my 77/4500. Would be interesting to see if there’s any improvements in that area.

This has to be the ultimate way to shoot any Luxe (even including the ICE) due to not using any springs whatsoever and still getting that timeless Luxe shot. The reliability gained from the “air-spring” formed by the V16 is really cool. Also shoots significantly nicer than the Encore bolt (did not dig sound signature on my 1.0 or ICE with encore) although I know that’s not a huge deal to most folks.

cant wait to get this onto the field!

[tyronejk]

Wooo! I'm glad you got good results from this. I agree, I like this bolt more than the Encore.

[RPP]

Any updates on this the past couple months? run into any issues ?

[tyronejk]

No updates or issues since my last post. I don't get out to play enough these days.