External/Internal review & first look: New Classic Army M14A4 Spartan Version [Pic heavy]

[Spike]

Well, CAs have a reputation of having shoddy internals, and this new line of guns from Spartan Imports are boasting improved internals. But are they? Let's take a look. I will be as brutally honest as I can. My phone has a scratched camera lens so the pics aren't going to be amazing.

From the Spartan Imports website:
http://www.spartanimports.com/store/...c+army+colt+m4


Overview

What's in the box:
Gun
High cap magazine
Cleaning Rod
[There's supposed to be a manual in here too]
Lots of styrofoam powder. Like a lot.






Externals

-The gun has a mix of Colt and Classic Army trademarks. None are engraved.

-The orange tip is extremely cheap looking and feeling.

-The included magazine needs to be love-tapped to seat properly in the magwell, but once it's in, it's F*ckn' IN

-Front end assembly is extremely solid

-The gun is rear-wired to a crane stock, which opens from the back for easy battery insertion.

-Stock has a noticable wobble to it.

For once, this FPS is actually correct. Chrono reading was between 420-425



First major change:
The buffer tube is the newer lipo kind, meant to house a battery. The receiver does not have the huge buffer tube mount like the old ones did. No more hack sawing your receiver! +1
No rear sling mount.



I will skip the disassembly because it's the same as any M4 series. A few notes on the disassembly:

-RS style magazine release
-Working bolt catch system [must be removed before mag release]
-Pistol grip has plastic thread screws instead of metal inserts to hold the motor plate on. -1


The Gearbox

The gearbox is a standard silver/metal colour, no writing on it.

Next major change
The selector plate is metal and is held on with a couple of small screws. The gearbox shell does NOT have proper cutouts for a regular selector plate. A regular plate looks like it would just fall off. Not sure why they did this.





Internals

Next major change

These guns feature a quick change spring guide. However, you still need to take the gearbox out of the gun to change it... so I guess it saves a bit of time/hassle when re-assembling?




On the inside, I'm met with mixed feelings.



The good/improved:

-Silver coated wire, no fuse

-Aluminium, ported piston head

-Double O ring aluminium cylinder head

-Appropriate amount of factory grease

-Gears are steel and seem fairly solid

-9mm bearings

-Stock shim job isn't perfect, but it's better than I've seen in a lot of guns

-Inner gearbox compression is 100%

The bad/why did they not fix this

-The motor looks and feels exactly the same as every CA gun in the past 7 years. They're fairly weak (though fast once they spin up... for a ferrite motor) and known to burn out pretty easily

-THE PISTON. For some reason, they still use the same paper maché yellow piston that they've always used. No second tooth removed, and there's not much you can do to keep it from stripping.

-The nozzle is a tad short (20.5mm) and leaks between the hop up unit. Though it does have an O ring.

-The cylinder head has wear marks... like it was sanded on purpose

-I think this is the worst stock AoE I've ever seen

-Gearbox shell is not radius'd and has that useless "reinforcement" around the spur gear a la King Arms.

The standard

-Tappet plate

-Spring (I am guessing an m130 due to the FPS and air leak)

-Trigger unit

-Type 2 aluminium cylinder

-Smaller gearbox parts, nothing special




Hop Up

The hop up unit is metal, and features a barrel O ring instead of a spring +1


Hop up rubber is a standard medium density rubber. Not bad, not great.

The barrel is your standard brass barrel. Spartan claims it to be a tightbore, but the box says it's a 6.08



Conclusion

These new guns have fixed some old gripes with CA, but the biggest thing for me is the piston.
My recommendations to make this gun more solid:
-Replace the piston
-Correct AoE
-Replace the motor

I am selling these for under $300, which makes them great platforms in my opinion. I am going to try different upgrade parts in this gun and will update this thread with my findings. I am hard on guns when I review them, but I still think it's a good buy.

[lurkingknight]

you said 9mm bearings?

Could it be the redesigned selector plate is metal and attached by screws so that the bearings have room underneath it? I was reading in multiple places the issue with 9mm bearing gearboxes are that the bearing races and flanges are HUGE, and they protrude a lot out the side of the gearbox.

[Spike]

I think you're right about that one. There is lots of space for the selector plate to ride above the bearings.

[lurkingknight]

I don't think it should be an issue though, as long as the gearbox is extracted properly... IE selector in semi, the plate should last a very long time.