Instead of risk having the CA stock piston/piston head fail on me during a game, I decided to swap it out for the Guarder polycarbonate piston and aluminum piston head. Anyway while I was inside the mechbox the stock tappet plate seemed weak so I tried replacing that with a Guarder Ver 3 tappet. Unfortunately the stock Version 3 Guarder tappet plate is not compatible with the CA G36 nozzle.

As you can see here the section that holds the nozzle in place on the Guarder tappet is about 2mm taller than with the stock part. When the stock nozzle is installed, it crooked and will not make proper contact with the hopup. Just wanted to warn you in case you have to replace the stock tappet plate (like if it breaks), you’ll also need to get a new nozzle.

A side note with the new piston/piston head installed, the CA G36 now shoots around 390 fps. I certainly didn’t expect such a large fps increase but I am pleased to report that the gun is shooting more consistently now (muzzle velocity only varies by about 3 fps). 🙂