Thanks all, this is turning out to be more fun than I thought, and I am in the hunter/gather stages at the moment. Hunting for info, and gathering my gear etc. My plan is to initially tune the rifle with Crosman 10.5 to 17fpe, for no other reason than to establish a starting point. So, I ordered a couple boxes of the Crosman Premiers this morning from Pyramyd Air. In the meantime I have a tin of 10.5 domed Crosmans that I can start dialing in the fps with. There is not much on the dial to adjust on the Akela, and my understanding it is only an adjuster to change the size of the transfer port. Worst case, I run a Huma regulator and leave the port wide open, but only time on the crony will tell.
I watched a couple Akela based videos from a channel called Sub 12 Airgunners, and there are some nice tune options I could try out. The channel also shows detailed procdures for Akela tear down, and basic barrel polishing etc.
Worst case, I put out a plea for another Gen1 Marauder in .177, and go with what I know...