oofnik wrote:Everyone too lazy to just go and check real quick to satisfy my curiosity?

Well, sir, you appear to have been the lazy one

PetrolGel is NOT the right product. Operating range: Operating Temp 0° - 185°F and it melts at 195°.
Petroleum-based products are incompatible with EPDM

http://www.home-barista.com/lever...-t4842.html#p52954

Oh #$%*...
I wish I had looked that up before using it on my lever. I used it without problems for my Wega rebuild. It didn't degrade the EPDM (?) head gasket sitting in the E61 head, also above boiling point, so I figured it would work well here too. But I guess head gaskets are not subjected to constant motion.

Well it looks like I'll definitely need new seals as well as a good cleaning to remove the gunk that's surely clogging up my group now. This is a bummer.
Thank you for the info. I feel pretty dumb now

So my machine is actually the less popular G105, not the G106. Edward at Parts Guru has informed me that the G105 actually uses pre-Millennium size gaskets, but this doesn't seem quite right. My portafilter is 51mm in diameter like the Millennium group, so I would assume that I would need Millennium parts. Could he perhaps be mistaken? I'm planning on ordering this kit. Does anybody know for sure? I can disassemble my machine again to take some measurements if I need to. Thanks again for all the help.

But back to the shower screen design:

oofnik wrote:Does anyone else with a Europiccola or a Factory have a shower screen pattern like this?

No, but the two spare E-61 shower screens I have laying around have the same feature. I attribute it to the methodology used to support/affix the screen to the surrounding metal. My screens have 112 "holes" having a diameter of ~ 2 mm. The AVERAGE water velocity is at a snail's pace - ~ 2 cm/sec.

So I just took it all apart again, cleaned the gunk off the rubbers with lacquer thinner, and put some Dow 111 in there. Silky smooth.

I'm not making that mistake again ever. Thanks for all the replies.