Review - ICS M4 BIBLE: Problems and Fixes

[TheQuietWarlock]

Is this good?

TM EG1000
Prometheus Sealing Nozzle
Prometheus Hard Selector Plate
Prometheus Aero Clyinder Head Ver II
Prometheus Stainless Hard Cylinder 301-400mm Inner Barrel
Prometheus Max Torque Piston
Prometheus EG Barrel
Systema Silent Head Set for Ver. 2
Guarder SP120 / PDI 170%
Guarder Anti-Reverasal Latch
Systema Excelide Shim Sets
Enhanced Tappet for Ver.2 Gearbox
Guarder 6mm Steel Bushing

Second off, can someone go over the list, and see if I'm missing something, don't need something, or if another maker is better/cheaper for that something.

I need this gun to be reliable, accurate, silent, and highest effective range, for the cheap ammount possible.

EDIT: Added two possible motors, took out uneeded stuff, added steel bushings, added silent Piston and Cylinder heads.

[mcguyver]

i have doubts about the ability of their upper mechbox to withstand the strain of that spring. the gun should shoot about 390-400fps and that's pushing that box right to the limit. i would also get another upper mechbox (empty) assemble your new parts in that one and keep your stock upper just in case. the lower mechbox should be fine to upgrade though. just remember that tappet, selector, anti-reversal latch must be ics. other manufacturers will not work properly. also change your motor end plate as ics motor is larger on the bell ends than marui compatible motors and you want your motor mounts to be as stable as possible. i tried this weekend to put an ics motor into a marui and she was a no go and i had to scrounge up another marui.

[TheQuietWarlock]

Pushing it to the limits? On FilAirsoft, they had much much higher rated springs in their guns without a problem.

Thanks though, thats a good idea, with getting another upper mechbox.

[mcguyver]

remeber this a CANADIAN forum and playing at +30 celsius is not always common. sometimes we play at temps near or below zero celsius and low temps with upgraded spring too often lead to disaster. if you live in a warm area, you MAY not have a problem, but i err on the side of caution. besides, have you ever removed your upper gear box? pay close attention to the amount of mechbox present around the spring guide and you'll see what i mean. good luck with your upgrades and let us know how they go.

[enoh]

how sturdy is the fixed stock on your m4?

[david3558]

I have a problem right now. I currently have a ICS Sr-16 and I just got a EG-1000 motor through a trade. However the pinion of the motor is loose, and is bascially useless. What minimum parts do I have to get to make the motor compatible?

Also: ICS pinion head, once removed from my motor, is it compatible with my EG-1000?

What do you guys think of SRC gears? They are pretty cheap...

[mcguyver]

keep the stock gears, no problem with them. pinions may be compatible, need to get a small gear puller and see. eg1000 will fit, but may torque some as motor cover is larger to fit larger turbo 2000 motor. is your ics motor dead? if not use it till it does, if it does.

[david3558]

So nothing is wrong with ICS 2000 motors?

[mcguyver]

some guys say they're crap, but i've only seen or even heard of 1 in hundreds fail. seen way more tm and systema motors pack it in. others say that every ics gun they've seen has had a bad motor. who's right? use it if you have it as it came with the gun and cost you nothing. if it dies, oh well. use your eg1000.

[T Smith]

My 2 kids and myself all purchased ICS M4 rifles a couple weeks ago. Two of them were purchased locally. I upgraded 2 of them with an ICS M120 spring, Guarder shims and metal bushing. Rather inexpensive upgrade. Total cost about US$30. Mine is consisitently shooting 429FPS and my younger son's is shooting 400FPS. Now here is the odd part. My older son wanted his professionally upgraded and got his from RedWolf. What a big mistake! Cost about US$225 more getting his gun from RedWolf. The upgrade was a "Level 4" and suppose to shoot 450FPS. We checked the speed and it was only shooting 370FPS!!! The upgrade included Systema Directional Piston Head, Deep Fire Titanium Piston, Systema gears, Prometheus spring, etc. I thought they probably put in a stock spring in error so I replaced it with a Systema M140. Still only 370FPS. I also noticed there was almost zero lube on the gears and none on the spring upper assembley. Really a sloppy upgrade. I lubed everything up properly and no difference. Finally I took out the hop up and bucking. Reinstalled them with grease on the bucking to seal any air leaks between the bucking / barrel / hop up. That shot the FPS up to 414FPS. But I am still puzzled at why my gun with a M120 spring and stock piston is shooting 429FPS and the other gun with the full upgrades and M140 is only shooting 414FPS. Any ideas? We love the guns and fired them all weekend long. About 3000 rounds through them without a single problem. Perfect, love the guns! (BTW, I'm certain on the chrono numbers. I have my own and compared it to the big red one at the airsoft store, identical readings.)

[mcguyver]

What cylinder is in the Redwolf Special? That may have some bearing on your lower than expected FPS.

[T Smith]

The cylinder is the stock ICS cylinder. I finally figured it out. The bucking on the ICS appears to have trouble with higher pressure setups. I played around with the guns a bunch more and was able to make the buckings fit tighter in the hop up. That bumped the FPS on the M140 to 449 and on the other two M120 rifles the FPS went into the mid 430 range. The RedWolf "upgrade" was apparently just a sloppy job of throwing in parts and not testing the gun. Had they tested the configuration they would have known that the gun shipped was nothing close to the 450 FPS advertised. All they would have needed to do to have made a poor experience into a good one was spend about 1 minute more on the upgrade to properly lube things and replace the stock ICS bucking with one designed for more higher pressure. Given they don't answer their emails it was rather frustrating at first as a newbiew troubleshooting it as so many things were replaced and several could have been the source of the problem. If we would have researched RedWolf more we would not have ordered from them as they don't have a good reputation for the quality of their upgrades and they were more expensive than the local shops. Live and learn...

[highny]

"Tsmith" thank you for your time to write, I was just about to give them a call to get them to upgrade my. Thanks again.

[smims]

after couple of headache, worndering how is the pinion compatibility on my 2009 ics m4, I answer about this problem again (Found lot of comment but dated to 2003 or so). The review is old and things may have changed. I broked my ics pinion while swaping gears on a TM motor (ICS motor has died) so i'm running with a TM pinion and motor. It is a lot less noisy that the original one (I'm now with the TM EG700). I'm wondering if newer ics replica are compatible with TM or random brand spur gear.

Here couple of description that make me doubt about the "old?" ics compatibility problem.

[Kos-Mos]

The newer ones are compatible.

But you really should get a Modify steel pinion and gear set. They are worth the price 10 times. Just don't get the modular ones, you can't fit the ICS ARL in there.