I have been pulling wonderful shots, so the machine is capable.

I switched from city water, to running a Flojet 5000 pump, and now the output is noticeably less. Shots are taking a full minute, pressure is down, and all crema is lost. As I have tried to compensate with grind, the taste has only gotten worse.

I bought this machine a few years ago, but it was used, and I am not sure if all the parts inside are original. It has a fluid-o-tech vibratory pump and OPV(white arrow), but the OPV is maxed out. There is also another recirculate valve(circled in red) of some sort, that I am just not sure exactly what it is. My assumption, is it will be the actual pressure adjustment. The yellow arrow shows the tubing that connects from the pump output, to the pump input, going through the valve in question. The blue arrow is the water source. Before I go adjusting anything, can someone shed light on what that valve is?

Found another picture of this same valve at Help understanding pump's valve adjustable functions - Faema C84

So, knowing what was inside, I took it apart. The adjustable nut pushes on a spring, which pushes on an O-ringed steel shaft, which pushes on a plastic metering valve(?). These work together, to restrict the amount of water being returned from the pressure side back into the supply side. The supply hose, has no restriction into the supply side of the pump. Screw in the adjusting nut, pressure increases.

Issues with mine were, the steel shaft was not moving under spring pressure. There was some verdigris build up restricting movement, which I cleaned out. The other issue was a piece of rubber partially obstructing the pump supply orifice.

Just wanted to update to this being solved.