Drag Race Build Kratos V2

[1cleangsx]

Glad you’re okay!! Holy Cow man, racing looks like such a roller coaster of highs and lows, your build thread is one my favorites on this forum, very inspiring as I’m currently in the middle of an auto swap , however with a car hobby in of itself being expensive, examples like this are why I’d never personally want an all out race car, even tho I love watching them . Thank you for all of your updates on this beast, again it’s a just a car and I’m glad you’re okay! I look forward to future updates on this thing, Happy Holidays

 

[Anfurnyy]

Now for the unfortunate news. Knowing I won’t be around for the 2025 race season, I had a chance to make one more pass after the races were complete. I added a few percent to the wastegate still not even 50% yet. The car hooked and felt good, hit 2nd gear and all hell broke loose. The car is still strapped in the trailer but I pulled the plugs out and number 3 piston isn’t moving, so my guess is a wrist pin snapped or the rod. Either way when it let loose it blew out every freeze plug there was and temps were low 50’s, even with my catch pan that water got on the slicks and then something locked up in the drivetrain. I did my absolute best to save it but I hit the wall at probably 60-70mph.

I haven’t really looked hard but the body has pretty good damage that’s going to need professional hands to see if it’s worth fixing. Rims are done, slick is done, hoping the rear subframe isn’t tweaked, rear axle, the diff, when it hit, my wing hit the wall and ripped off. This is not going to be a nice to the wallet repair. It’s been one hell of a wild ride to say the least going back 20 years of messing with these cars. I never thought I’d being running mid 8’s and winning against big name shop built cars. I’m pretty happy with what I achieved out of my home garage with a full wetblock and this video 2800lbs race weight.
While I’m away next season I’m going to reflect on everything and either part out what’s salvageable and retire from DSM’s or fix everything and continue the adventure. As of right now I’m figuring $10-15k to fix and repair everything and it’s been a very expensive 2 seasons.

Then the question is if I return do I keep it in mid 8’s form….. the turbo has plenty of juice left and the car could use some weight reduction but that 25.5 cage upgrade is expensive as well if the quest to go for 7’s is next. I really don’t see more than a handful of the current DSM’s achieving it as our platform is continuing to dwindle. Lots of time to think things over though. The forums have been awesome and I’ll continue to stay active. Boost on

I'll throw this out there, not because I need to sell but more so to help a fellow DSMer out.

I've got a 93 AWD manual roller that id like to get rid of if you're interested.

 

[TerminalTalon]

I also have fenders, a bumper and a lot of misc including a roller 90 Talon. I’m in Norfolk so closer than most.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Glad you’re okay!! Holy Cow man, racing looks like such a roller coaster of highs and lows, your build thread is one my favorites on this forum, very inspiring as I’m currently in the middle of an auto swap , however with a car hobby in of itself being expensive, examples like this are why I’d never personally want an all out race car, even tho I love watching them . Thank you for all of your updates on this beast, again it’s a just a car and I’m glad you’re okay! I look forward to future updates on this thing, Happy Holidays

Thank you very much for the kind words. If you have any questions on the swap I’d be more than happy to assist.

I also have fenders, a bumper and a lot of misc including a roller 90 Talon. I’m in Norfolk so closer than most.

Thank you for the offer. I’m out of the continental 48 at the moment handling Uncle Sam’s business. When I get back fall next year, I’ll assess everything and go from there.

 

[diambo4life]

Now for the unfortunate news. Knowing I won’t be around for the 2025 race season, I had a chance to make one more pass after the races were complete. I added a few percent to the wastegate still not even 50% yet. The car hooked and felt good, hit 2nd gear and all hell broke loose. The car is still strapped in the trailer but I pulled the plugs out and number 3 piston isn’t moving, so my guess is a wrist pin snapped or the rod. Either way when it let loose it blew out every freeze plug there was and temps were low 50’s, even with my catch pan that water got on the slicks and then something locked up in the drivetrain. I did my absolute best to save it but I hit the wall at probably 60-70mph.

I haven’t really looked hard but the body has pretty good damage that’s going to need professional hands to see if it’s worth fixing. Rims are done, slick is done, hoping the rear subframe isn’t tweaked, rear axle, the diff, when it hit, my wing hit the wall and ripped off. This is not going to be a nice to the wallet repair. It’s been one hell of a wild ride to say the least going back 20 years of messing with these cars. I never thought I’d being running mid 8’s and winning against big name shop built cars. I’m pretty happy with what I achieved out of my home garage with a full wetblock and this video 2800lbs race weight.
While I’m away next season I’m going to reflect on everything and either part out what’s salvageable and retire from DSM’s or fix everything and continue the adventure. As of right now I’m figuring $10-15k to fix and repair everything and it’s been a very expensive 2 seasons.

Then the question is if I return do I keep it in mid 8’s form….. the turbo has plenty of juice left and the car could use some weight reduction but that 25.5 cage upgrade is expensive as well if the quest to go for 7’s is next. I really don’t see more than a handful of the current DSM’s achieving it as our platform is continuing to dwindle. Lots of time to think things over though. The forums have been awesome and I’ll continue to stay active. Boost on

Sorry to hear man. Love your project and hopefully we will see the reincarnation of this car even if it's in another shell. Maybe build it for drag and drive?

 

[Brandon Mau]

Sorry to hear man. Love your project and hopefully we will see the reincarnation of this car even if it's in another shell. Maybe build it for drag and drive?

That has actually crossed my mind before. It would be a new challenge and I believe a really great time. My lightbulb is on and that is something I will really consider moving forward.

 

[Brandon Mau]

I made the purchase last year and I’m not in the U.S to unbox the carbonetics care package but there will be some new aerodynamics on the current chassis or new depending on a full assessment after the crash. I also have my order in for the kiggly straight cut planet gears. Every billet piece you can get for an auto trans will now be in the car. I’ve been in contact with Wiseco about making me some custom pistons with some beefier wrist pin landings and added gas ports. I didn’t get to tear down the engine but I know number 3 let go and my money is on the wrist pin ripped out of the piston, same thing that happened back in 2018.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Well now that the 9 month vacation is over and I’ve had time to catch up on life, we get ready for 2026. Pulled the car cover off, transported to a friend’s big garage so we can tackle a few things. Sent some pictures to body shops and everything looks to be repairable from the crash in 2024. I made an order for some more carbon bits in 24’ and they arrived while I was gone, after unpacking the hood I seen the clear coat was damaged. 10 months after it arrived at my house not much case to argue so that will need to be clear coated again. The one piece hood looks really good and removing the headlight buckets and pop up motors saves some weight.

Also picked up the removable hood hinges, great quality and makes it easier working on this thing because I’m always pulling the engine and trans (hopefully not in 26’).

I have everything to build the short block, a fresh set of Vader rods, king main bearings (finally!), wiseco custom pistons and an oem crank. Sticking with the 2.0LR 156mm rods, 22mm pins and dropping compression down to 9.5:1 vs the 11.5:1 and 10.5:1 in previous seasons. Today we knocked out 3/4 filling the block, probably more but the concrete is about 1” below the deck surface. I don’t feel like welding the head shut and the full wet block took us to a healthy 1000whp+ but I know I was really pushing it. Right or wrong i don’t know but it’s done and that’s what I’m trying. Old shearer spec wiseco 2.0 spec vs the new pistons.

Should be able to drop the block off at the machine shop sometime this week and then start chipping away at tubing the front end. I got ahold of a 2G auto transmission so I’ll be swapping to that. The caveat is I need a good converter which is dang near impossible to find. I don’t have any timeline or goals this season other than getting out to the track, making some passes without breaking and having fun. Glad to be back, lots of catching up to do on the forums it looks like lots of guys have been busy.

 

[1cleangsx]

Glad you’re back! Can’t wait to follow along in 2026

 

[Brandon Mau]

We got the old engine ripped apart, the way it broke was pretty amazing. As I suspected cylinder 3 gave out, my guess is the cylinder wall cracked, water rushed in and hydro locked the cylinder, snapped the rod and then all hell broke loose. It slammed cylinder 3 into #4 offset that one, cracked the deck on 4,3 and into #2. The craziest part of the whole thing is that it didn’t window the outside of the block. When I pulled the valve cover no rockers were kicked off, timing marks were still in line. It looks like it nicked the intake valves on number 3 (bent) but I couldn’t see anything else with the eye ball test and I’m super relieved for that.

Block was dropped off yesterday at TKM Performance in Denton,NC. We’ve been feeding them 4G blocks for the past 2 years. Great facility, they do a lot of the big V8 cars including Cletus Mcfarlands engines. I gave them my specs and they’ll handle the machine work like in 2024 and then I’ll assemble the block myself again.

The head I’m going to ship down to Dover cylinder heads in SC again, I really like their work and they’ve been doing the 4G heads for at least 15 years now.

I’m having issues with my videos not uploading but I am trying. This weekend the focus will be building the straight cut planetary set and transferring all the billet parts to the 2G transmission. I may try and do a video of tear down and assembly of the kiggly straight cut planets not going to promise though.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Here is a link to the Kiggly planetary how to article on the site.

Kiggly Racing Straight Cut Planetary Gear tutorial

In this video we go step by step disassembling the W4A33 planetary gear assembly, the way I did it, and assembly.You must be registered to see element.Kiggly already has a excellent PDF file available to open public on his website link here- You must be registered to see element.I hope...

www.dsmtuners.com

Don’t critique me too bad i wouldn’t call myself a social buttery fly haha. Jokes aside I hope it does help anyone out looking to do it themselves and I welcome any questions about it.

 

[Brandon Mau]

The next order of business was chopping the front end off in preparation to tube the front end. Lots and lots of measuring had to take place. I wouldn’t call fabricating one of my strong suits and this you need to have a good imagination of the vision. I’ve been talking to Gregory and Leisure a lot on this one. In the end I’m going to follow @Mark L design. The top bars will follow more of the factory curvature frame rails but the bottom portion will be similar. This will save a few lbs of weight but more geared towards having room to work on it easier and it was about impossible to pull the compressor cover off without removing my radiator. The class racing I do they measure the comp wheels and then once tech is done you’re into qualifying shortly afterwards. As I progress I’ll keep the updates coming. Trying my best to have the car at the body shop by the first week of February.

I also had a chance to gut 2 of my 1G parts transmissions. Next will be transferring over my current 1G internals to the new 2G trans and build the new valvebody.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Had a chance to get a few more hours in on the car with the help of the Spec Ops Race Team crew. We got the main hoop bent and tacked on. Decided on making it removable for whenever we have to tear the engine or trans out this will make it much easier. Next up, is slapping a head on, mounting the exhaust mani and turbo to get the intercooler at the right spacing. Where it was in factory front trim was where it will end up, need the turbo on before we make the front engine mount to clear the hotside piping. Once that’s done radiator time, for this car being dedicated to drag racing only the full size rad will be going in favor for something smaller, then mount the electric water pump and so on. Lots and lots to think about methodically for what makes sense. 14-18 days to have the front end all finished up to stay on our goal for dropping the car off to get the damage from hitting the wall fixed.

Really trying to stay motivated and push through this entire thing. Having to build a new engine, transmission, get ahold of a good 2G torque converter, body work, paint and fabrication is a lot of time and $. As of right now I’m enjoying the challenge and being in control of making these small changes that have made things more difficult working on the car between rounds in the past. All said and done I think is going to be pretty awesome.

 

[1cleangsx]

Nice to see you continue to document your progress! Not many 8 second guys here on the forum , I can’t imagine my car ever being a full blown race car, but I genuinely LOVE following along with you and your race car, so many highs and lows it seems, again, I think it’s truly impressive what you’ve accomplished with your car, and a testament to your dedication to never give up no matter what happens

What trans cooler would you recommend for a street driven auto? What are your thoughts on the mounting location? Engine bay compared to say mounted under the car etc..

 

[Imback]

Had a chance to get a few more hours in on the car with the help of the Spec Ops Race Team crew. We got the main hoop bent and tacked on. Decided on making it removable for whenever we have to tear the engine or trans out this will make it much easier. Next up, is slapping a head on, mounting the exhaust mani and turbo to get the intercooler at the right spacing. Where it was in factory front trim was where it will end up, need the turbo on before we make the front engine mount to clear the hotside piping. Once that’s done radiator time, for this car being dedicated to drag racing only the full size rad will be going in favor for something smaller, then mount the electric water pump and so on. Lots and lots to think about methodically for what makes sense. 14-18 days to have the front end all finished up to stay on our goal for dropping the car off to get the damage from hitting the wall fixed.

Really trying to stay motivated and push through this entire thing. Having to build a new engine, transmission, get ahold of a good 2G torque converter, body work, paint and fabrication is a lot of time and $. As of right now I’m enjoying the challenge and being in control of making these small changes that have made things more difficult working on the car between rounds in the past. All said and done I think is going to be pretty awesome.

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Hey brandon. I would grind down and re weld the front radiator support. Those are cold welds and snap easily. I would personally do 3/16 or 1/4 for the plate. I can cut them out for you if you don't have someone locally. Good luck

 

[Brandon Mau]

Nice to see you continue to document your progress! Not many 8 second guys here on the forum , I can’t imagine my car ever being a full blown race car, but I genuinely LOVE following along with you and your race car, so many highs and lows it seems, again, I think it’s truly impressive what you’ve accomplished with your car, and a testament to your dedication to never give up no matter what happens

What trans cooler would you recommend for a street driven auto? What are your thoughts on the mounting location? Engine bay compared to say mounted under the car etc..

Thanks a ton man, it means a lot! I’m not 100% sure why more guys don’t post on here anymore, they’re definitely busy on Facebook and Instagram. All my progress on the build will only be posted here, I’ll have to use social media if I do good at any races though for certain businesses. The trans cooler is a great question, I’ve been running this one since 2019 with a good SPAL fan I can get the part number for you in a day or 2.

Amazon.com

The other option I would look at is

Derale Atomic-Cool Remote Fan-Mounted Oil Coolers 13950.​

both would be great options to keeping the fluid nice and cool for normal driving and spirited.

 

[jesse12345]

I just went through your whole build thread and man what an absolute roller coaster. Seeing how many engines and transmissions you have gone through has made me happy with my oem plus build. Seeing you stick with it after all these years of trial and error and then a crash on top, man I have no words. Your definitely an inspiration, keep up the absolute killer work.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Hey brandon. I would grind down and re weld the front radiator support. Those are cold welds and snap easily. I would personally do 3/16 or 1/4 for the plate. I can cut them out for you if you don't have someone locally. Good luck

Oh yes 100% agree on re-welding, these were just tacked into place with a MIG for measuring purposes. I did look at using a thicker steel plate but that seemed a bit excessive a half inch of plates welded to 1/16” sheet metal, since they’ll be stacked up being a bolt on design 2x 7/16” grade 8 bolts per side. We made the plates a little oversized to make sure there is good penetration to weld on the paper thin sheet metal frame and the 1/8” steel plates leftover from doing a roll cage a few weeks back. TIG the chromoly to the plate and add gussets vertically. I’m guessing the front hoop will be holding around 100-110lbs total between rad, intercooler and the little brackets for boost solenoid and the water pump. The front of the engine really have any weight on it just the small amount of forward backwards movement of accel and decel. The final load test will be me and a friend standing on it with a few bounces of 400lbs load test hahaha. I’ve always looked at this mod to be more for making room than increasing the strength of the front end per se.

I’ll be sure to get some better up close pictures of everything when I get back to it. This is also not meant to sound like I am right and I do greatly appreciate the constructive criticism and tips from you or anyone else who does this more frequently. That’s the great thing about the forums a solid piece of correct advice where Facebook would have comments on how this is not right at all but not offering how to fix the issues correctly.

I just went through your whole build thread and man what an absolute roller coaster. Seeing how many engines and transmissions you have gone through has made me happy with my oem plus build. Seeing you stick with it after all these years of trial and error and then a crash on top, man I have no words. Your definitely an inspiration, keep up the absolute killer work.

Heck ya man I appreciate it. It has been quite the journey for sure, looking back to the beginning it’s amazing how the car has transformed after all these years. The OEM plus build is the smart way to go. Plenty capable of having fun and can cruise anywhere in the states normally. That is definitely one thing I miss is being able to drive it on the road with good manners and an exhaust that’s not blowing your ear drums out. Nowadays people have side exits, hood exits, full roll cages and because they can get it tagged for their respective state call it street car hahaha. Everyone has an opinion on what’s a street car. I’m sure yours has been a lot cheaper than mine to maintain hahaa.

 

[DreamChaser7]

That’s the great thing about the forums a solid piece of correct advice where Facebook would have comments on how this is not right at all but not offering how to fix the issues correctly.

I for one don’t mess with the social media stuff, I finally had to make an IG account but did it for my car not my name just to access a certain vendor. I cannot express enough how much I appreciate this platform and the wealth of knowledge it has opened me up to. Don’t know what I would do without it.

 

[Brandon Mau]

2 week update from last post, let me tell you chipping away at this thing at every spare second. Finished up the tubed front end. After going through some more R&D we had to shorten up the main bar and add the bull bar to hold the I.C pipe for what I envisioned. Also had to order a new half radiator to fit in a place I liked so that was a few days delay. CSF 600CFM fan should be plenty for cooling the head and 1" of water that will flow through the top of block since it's not a full fill. Making the front engine mount was fun as well, we had to bend it for clearance on the original hot side pipe for I.C, so we were able to retain the current I.C pipes without any modifications needed.

A new side exit will be needed, The 3.5" pipe should theoretically be fine for about 1300HP but buy once cry once 4" titanium will be coming soon.I sourced a 8 pass #6 Precision 2G converter from another 8 second Mitsu which is huge to keeping on path for the be ready to hit track in April goal. Called up MASFAB and they had 1-1G drag wing in stock so I picked that up. Not entirely sure if it will help at my almost 170MPH trap speed but I figured since the car will be getting the rear quarters back fixed and painted from hitting the wall mine as well fill the factory wing holes now and just do it to match the bumper lip and drag side skirts. I dropped the car off at the body shop yesterday with a 2-3 week estimated timeframe for work to be finished on it.

The head should be back this week, block I need to call and get a status on but I think this is some great progress for 1 month of going hard. Always playing catch up after these long deployments and then catching back up to the competition. Still lots to do and I need to add in some more ECU related stuff. I haven't tackled the 2G transmission yet but maybe I'll make a valvebody video- this will be similar to IPT's since we all follow his but with some of kiggly's mods explained a little more in depth and what I have found to work for transmission pressures and springs. That's it for now.... Stay tuned.

 

[awdmonster1904]

2 week update from last post, let me tell you chipping away at this thing at every spare second. Finished up the tubed front end. After going through some more R&D we had to shorten up the main bar and add the bull bar to hold the I.C pipe for what I envisioned. Also had to order a new half radiator to fit in a place I liked so that was a few days delay. CSF 600CFM fan should be plenty for cooling the head and 1" of water that will flow through the top of block since it's not a full fill. Making the front engine mount was fun as well, we had to bend it for clearance on the original hot side pipe for I.C, so we were able to retain the current I.C pipes without any modifications needed.

A new side exit will be needed, The 3.5" pipe should theoretically be fine for about 1300HP but buy once cry once 4" titanium will be coming soon.I sourced a 8 pass #6 Precision 2G converter from another 8 second Mitsu which is huge to keeping on path for the be ready to hit track in April goal. Called up MASFAB and they had 1-1G drag wing in stock so I picked that up. Not entirely sure if it will help at my almost 170MPH trap speed but I figured since the car will be getting the rear quarters back fixed and painted from hitting the wall mine as well fill the factory wing holes now and just do it to match the bumper lip and drag side skirts. I dropped the car off at the body shop yesterday with a 2-3 week estimated timeframe for work to be finished on it.

The head should be back this week, block I need to call and get a status on but I think this is some great progress for 1 month of going hard. Always playing catch up after these long deployments and then catching back up to the competition. Still lots to do and I need to add in some more ECU related stuff. I haven't tackled the 2G transmission yet but maybe I'll make a valvebody video- this will be similar to IPT's since we all follow his but with some of kiggly's mods explained a little more in depth and what I have found to work for transmission pressures and springs. That's it for now.... Stay tuned.

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You been busy busy ! Looking good man !

 

[Brandon Mau]

You been busy busy ! Looking good man !

Thanks man, I'm picking up my block and cranks from the machine shop today. I have to build 2 transfer cases this weekend and then I can start chipping away at assembling the bottom end. I gave the head shop a call and I should have that back next week. It's just been a waiting game at this point which is a good thing so I can reset mentally before this final big push to get it all back together.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Machine shops- 1 for block and 1 for head were both delayed but not in a bad way. Picked up the block and cranks on Monday, and my head arrived 2 days ago. The engine assembly will be next on the list to assemble.

Body shop has been keeping me posted, they got the main damage pulled out really well and the car will require minimal bondo which I’m super happy on that part. I only have pics of one side so far, also having them fill all the factory wing holes since they won’t be needed with the new drag wing.

The past 2 days I’ve been chipping away at the 2G transmission. Tore it all the way down, clean and inspected the case, trans pump and input shaft. Everything else was transferred from the 1G transmission. I need to do set the kickdown band adjustment and then build up the valvebody and that’s a wrap. Kiggly straight cuts were installed, straight cut transfer gears, the front diff had to be transferred because this was a 97-99 different ratio trans, billet saddle. I’ll get some pics of the valvebody and possibly do short video explaining some of the internal VB mods that are outside of the standard translab shift kit.

 

[Brandon Mau]

I’m a little behind on updates but honestly haven’t had much time to mess with the race car while building my new race car shop simultaneously. I got the long block buttoned up and missed the first NOPI race due to the body shop taking 3 months. I’m pretty happy overall they were able to get the body nice and straight, got alot of the old dings and dents in the rear fixed plus the big one from the wall. Rear end is tweaked by the naked eye so I’ll need to drop the subframe and take a good look over everything and also need a new wheel.

Next up will be finishing welding the front end plates to frame rails, powder coat, slap the long block in, slap the 2G trans in and then modify the frame rail so that fits correctly. I also bought an input expander to gather further data, I’m all about data with transmission and turbo shaft speed plus some other things I’m working behind the scenes. With all this being said I’ll probably just do 1 tnt make sure all is good then the shootout will be my first real outing in the car. I also have another dsm which will make its debut at the shootout should be a real contender.