G&G SNC (Super Nano-Co Alloy) Piston

[UrPeaceKeeper]

Purchase History:

This piston was purchased more or less out of frustration over the lack of information and the amount of MISinformation being spread about this piston. Over on AirsoftMechanics, the various techs where posturing and speculating, so I decided to end that speculation. My G&G M14 recently ate a Bravo Piston (More than likely due to my error, but thats beside the point ) so I decided to give this piston a try and see what G&G's Hype was all about.

 

What follows is my best attempt at an unbias review of a G&G product (for those that know me, that should be laughable )

 

This piston was ordered from Airsoft GI for the price of 45$ (Less after I combined it with some other items to get free shipping and used the discount code "tim" for 10% off)

 

 

Arrival:

Typical G&G packaging, a nice resealable baggy with the G&G Paper Tab over the top. (No pictures sorry). This is G&G standard packaging, and is about the same from other piston manufacturers. My Bravo didnt come in any real packaging, just some thin plastic.

 

 

The Piston:

 

 

 

As you can see, the piston is a dark flat grey. The texture on this piston is near super fine grit sandpaper in that it doesnt feel smooth like a Delrin or ABS piston and it's not textured like a Nylon piston is. It's not "rough" perse like I'm worried about sanding the piston rails in the gearbox, but it has that feeling like fine grit sand paper.

 

The piston itself failed the cut test, and by failed, I mean it wouldn't cut. You can see in the picture of the top, where I attempted to cut a sliver off. What does that mean? For this piston, I'm not entirely sure, for other pistons it's a test of hardness, and it's no brainer that this piston is probably pretty dang hard. Why? Check out the Redwolf "Stats" for this piston:

 

Specific Gravity: 1.153 (Specific Gravity is a fancy way of saying Relative Density or how dense is it compared to water, in this case, slightly more dense)

High Rockwell Hardness Rating: HRL 87.2

High Impact Strength: 57.3 KJ/m^2

 

 

Important Observations:

This piston is translucent!

 

Others have noted that the design of the piston may be it's ultimate flaw. Being based around the original TM pistons and not G&G's Reinforced or Prometheus or Azimuth's newer designs in which the piston rails are cut to reduce friction and the sides of the teeth are supported by plastic. I however remain skeptical of the problems associated with that. Then again, those others also build setups which are way out of the playable realm for 90% of airsofters.

 

Single Metal Tooth, to some thats a disadvantage as there is a higher probability of the tooth caving in, personally though, the high Rockwell harndess should keep that firmly in place but only time will tell.

 

The piston is also semi flexible. With some grunting I was able to slightly (and yes I mean slightly) deform the opening where the spring goes in, but the piston returns happily to shape.

 

Second tooth is removed to facilitate AoE adjustment, the third may need shaved down slightly.

 

Some slight sanding of the piston rails was necessary to prevent binding in the gearbox, but this has become normal for pistons I put in guns.

 

 

Overal Strength:

I wish I knew. So far this piston has cycled maybe 300 times since the failure of my Bravo Piston on the SHS gears. I have a Guarder SP150 coming to test this piston a little bit more thuroughly, but on an SP130 the 300ish cycles there isnt a sign of wear at all. Only time can truely tell if this piston will last or it will fail.

 

 

Performance:

I put everything together in my G&G M14 Gearbox:

 

G&P M160

Guarder SP130

SHS 100:200 Gears (See Review)

G&G Nano-Co Alloy Piston

SHS Pinion Gear

SW-AB Long

G&G Aluminum Piston Head (stock)

G&G M14 Veteran Cylinder and cylinder Head (stock)

G&G Air Seal Nozzle for M14/AUG (stock)

G&G Bearing Spring Guide (stock)

AoE Adjustment with Sorbo

 

and it survived 300 rounds with an SP130. Horribly stressfull (right ) and a long torture test.... Ok call me a liar. I honestly dont know what to say, it has survived the test bed so far, I await a new cutoff lever to give me my semi auto back and the Guarder SP150 before maknig a true final judgement.

 

 

Overal Ratings:

Build Quality: 10/10 It's a really nice piston. The material is incredibly fascinating.

 

Performance: ?/10 I'm going to leave this one as a ? mark. Being as the Piston's only job is going to be staying together, I can't judge the performance of this product yet. I have high hopes and confidence that this will survive M150 mayhem.

 

Price: 6/10 At 45$ it's expensive, especially when there are any number of other pistons out there that will probably provide the same performance for a lesser cost. On the other hand, I wont know if it's actually worth it untill it fails and what that round count is.

 

Overall: 8/10 If I had to put a number on it now. The price is a real downer, but the material has it's promises. Only time can really tell if it's ACTUALLY worth the price and if the performance is there or not.