Information on the quality of FTK's?

[TheBlueRoller]

I know what FTK's are, and I know what purpose they serve, but my question is, are they worth it? I'm buying a gun second hand (I'm in the USA) and he's put a Guarder FTK into a Marui AUG, so these are basically new internals. I've Googled this, searched other forums and found almost no info on them. Anybody have any experience with these tune up kits? Do they help preformance? Or do they hurt longevity?

[fi3re]

It really depends who made the FTK. Guarder is good stuff. (ok not so good aparently, I heard wrong) Marui internals are reputed as bulletproof but even then can be improved on.
FTK is really just a bunch of tune-up parts sold as a package... no different then buying parts separately.
as with any after market part, if installed correctly it will generally lead to higher performance and durability.

[Rugger_can]

Usually they are nice to get when you have an older aeg that is nearing the end of its life but still has a solid mechbox shell, otherwise it's usually a better deal to just buy the parts you need to replace individually damaged parts. Some of the FTK on the market can improve performance over stock parts, but you really need to make sure your buying a quality kit and consider if you really need the performance gain that the kit will give.

[TheBlueRoller]

The gun had 2 owners before me, the 2nd owner putting only 2k rounds through it. I don't know the round count of the 1st owner so I can only assume that it had a high round count, better to plan for the worst. The 2nd owner put the internals in, so these internals are brand new. I just needed some info because if the FTK's are garbage, then I would have a local shop replace them with a systema speed gear set. Stupid AUG's and their limited battery space. Anyway, thanks guys!

[kalnaren]

IMO FTK's are only worth the cost if you actually need to replace nearly every part that comes in the FTK.

[Rugger_can]

If he put an FTK in then you should be good man. Run it till it breaks then fix n repair.

[fi3re]

Originally Posted by kalnaren

IMO FTK's are only worth the cost if you actually need to replace nearly every part that comes in the FTK.

Well its always good to have spare parts.... FTK's will be cheaper than buying parts one at a time

[L473ncy]

I've heard not so great things of Guarder. Basically as I understand it they're a step up in improvement over stock clone internals but even they're not the greatest. They are good for the price though.

This might be a bit of a computer oriented analogy and not entirely correct or relational but I'll try it anyways: Lets say you have a Computer that "can" run DDR2-1066 RAM. You currently have a cheap computer (equivalent to a clone) that has DDR2-400. You have 3 options, DDR2-667 ($50), 800 ($100) and 1066 ($200). The 667 is a slight step up (Guarder FTK), the 800 is a bigger step (I don't know any brands but lets just say it's a "Modify FTK") but costs more definitely not twice the performance though, lets say 1.7X (I know you can't just give it a quantitative metric since a lot of factors come into play with varying degrees of priority to different people) the performance of the Guarder FTK, and the 1066 costs the most but gives you the biggest step in performance (For this category lets say a Prometheus FTK) BUT it's not 4x a step up in performance, lets say it's 2.5x the performance of the stock "computer".

Now take a second scenario, you have a better computer, lets say a TM or VFC. Well the internals are good enough and lets compare that with having a computer with DDR2-800 right off the bat. Sure there could be room for improvement but anything else is pretty much a downgrade except the "$200" RAM upgrade which only bumps you up slightly in performance (lets say 1.5X the performance of it's "superior stock parts").

Final note, keep in mind this is a really crappy analogy but I hope it made it kind of clear for you. And if not then just forget it.

[TheBlueRoller]

L473ncy, It did help, but at this point, since it's second hand, I really can't do too much about it. The internals have already been gutted out. Either way, the guy's giving up 6 mids and 1 high cap, plus a Prommy TBB. If something breaks, the next parts the guns going to get is a helical gear set. I'm going to set it up for speed, hybrid the gun between CQB and field. Good range and accuracy, combined with speed and full auto capabilities in a field setting? One scary mofo IMO. Thanks all!

[Amos]

Guarder parts suck.

Straight up, their gears are tempered awfully and are super brittle, their plastics are way too hard for their given applications...

The only guarder parts I'd ever use would be a spring guide and the cylinder... Everything else doesn't pass my own personal quality control.

[TokyoSeven]

I do not enjoy guarder internals at all, their gears are possibly the worst quality gears I have ever dealt with, even in a properly shimmed mechbox Ive seen these gears break. There are better things that money could be used on aside from a guarder full tune up kit. Guarder piston heads are on par with their gears, terrible in every way.

[Skruface]

Modify FTK's for the win, IMHO.