Today threw me off again. Last night I was reading posts from pages 30-37 on this forum and came across some interesting warm up techniques, which I tried today. I started the machine up on the steam setting, when the release valve showed first signs of hissing, I flicked the switch back to brew and started my procedure. The group head was cooler than usual. That aside...

I did my usual routine today, and there was resistance from the very top of the lever travel. The result 25ml of overextracted coffee (my grind was right for a 15ml pour).
2nd pull, adjusted grind, 10 sec pre infusion, resistance from start of travel, beautiful 25ml espresso with red and brown crema like I've never had off the Pavoni before........slowely raised cup to mouth,........first sip,.......so burnt.

This is throwing a spanner into the works for me. Up to now I have been pouring very tasty ristretti (15ml), but I want to start getting longer pulls so that I can drink some espresso. Could it be that the brew chamber is not drawing enough water, resulting in less resistance in the lever pull/more air, because the boiler is not hot enough? Or is it another problem that was fixed by overheating the water?

well, Ive come to realise that I was not letting the Pavoni heat up enough. Not by much because my shots tasted good, but just too cool to draw a full chambers water.
For all your trouble with advise, here is a pic of a nice pour from today.

Nice pour! Glad to hear you are making progress up the curve.

Is that a single spout? Where exactly did you get that? I certainly would like to get one for my machine! I never split shots so that would be a good deal better than lining the cup up perfectly every time.
Are you using one of the millenium models or an older one?

Its an older Pavoni, I think pre '73 as it has the older style group gasket. It also has 2 setting switch for espresso and steam (which created thoughts in my head that lead to pouring to cool).

The spout is from somewhere, it was lying around our spare machine parts. I think it may have come from a San Marino or Klub. It is a short single spout designed to get into tall cups. You can see that the spout comes out sideways from the thread. I can fit 150ml cups under it very easily still. A simple search should find some, but here is an Australian misc parts suppliers page http://www.coffeeparts.com.au/misc/spouts.html

Hmm. Yeah that's a bit expensive for shipping. Maybe I will just unthread the double spout and use it without it.
Thanks though.
And keep up the good pours.

Any 3/8 spouts will fit. Try a local coffee machine merchant or repair guy or even local roaster. Here are a few that may be closer to you for cheaper shipping:

http://www.espressoparts.com/cate...portafilterspouts/ or
http://www.partsguru.com/Replacementparts.html