Drag Race Build Kratos V2

[Brandon Mau]

Glad you are getting the cage. 150mph requires it, doesn't it?
Trailer is awesome! If I painted the inside of mine, I would be painting AIR......

I needed a cage at 9.99 the parachute is for 150mph plus which I think is achievable now.

 

[b00stedtalon2]

Love the inside of the trailer. I'd like to do the same thing to mine.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Love the inside of the trailer. I'd like to do the same thing to mine.

Thanks Scott. I used that rustoleum epoxy paint kit for the garage floor from Lowe’s or Home Depot a single coat covered it no problem. The plywood on the walls soaked the white paint up and it took 2 gallons and 3 coats before it covered everything nice. It definitely made it much brighter inside with the led strips I tied into the single overhead 12 volt light.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Pictures, updates? Able Racing should have you hooked up!

 

[Brandon Mau]

Pictures, updates? Able Racing should have you hooked up!

I wish it were done that quick . I did the 700 mile round trip yesterday and dropped the car off. They had some nice hot rods in there that’s for sure. Now I just have to wait for the phone call when it’s done ETA is a week or 2.

 

[1990TSIAWDTALON]

Well worth the wait!

 

[Brandon Mau]

They’re finishing up the last couple welds and then I’m loading up and heading home. I will be slowly chipping away at finishing it up over the next few months. More updates to come very soon!

 

[92AWDHX40]

It's been a while, that's one incredible panda

 

[Brandon Mau]

It's been a while, that's one incredible panda

Thank you. I really wanted to get the body work done this season but all the correct safety stuff was a bit more than anticipated. We’ll see what unfolds I’m going to get some more pics today of the cage.

 

[Brandon Mau]

It’s a very gloomy day so the light is not the best. The inside is trashed and I need to clean it up. First order of business is lightening the rat nest of wiring. I decided I’m not going to put all the hvac stuff back in saves maybe 20lbs so the wiring needs to go. So I’m going to start that now. Then I’ll move onto cleaning up the paint inside, deleting the rear seat mounts and sheet metal for a few extra lbs. This was a s&w chromoly 10 point kit they had to make new a pillar bars and the seat belt bar was short. All in all I’m happy with how it turned out wish it was a little tighter fitting but safety wise it meets nhra standards which this season is my 100% focus. I have the window net I need to weld in, chute handle and I need to remake my seat mount I had them add in a rocker bar.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Made a little progress. Threw a quick coat on the bars to prevent any surface rust while it sits in the trailer. Cut the dash to fit, put the carpet back in then spent a few hours making the new seat bracket and let me tell ya that was a pain in the ass when your 6ft trying to make sure you meet the helmet clearance requirements. Tomorrow I’ll finish putting the cluster, gauges and some of the trim back in. Probably just leave from the back seat back bare. Progress is progress I guess

 

[Brandon Mau]

I made this decision last January to keep my current precision converter un changed and try out the 7% taller gears. I sold my standard ratio gears to a friend so I took a couple hours to remove the old ones and install the new ones. For the 2nd time I didn’t feel like pulling the trans to swap gears so I did it in the car but this time took pictures for proof to show it is very doable.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Had a little free time so I figured it was a good idea to install the kill switch. One more piece of the nhra tech standards complete.

 

[b00stedtalon2]

Nice progress!

 

[Brandon Mau]

I picked up this speed factory radiator setup in the beginning of December from a part out. It’s definitely much more compact than the full size mishimoto that was in there and should be plenty efficient for my use of the car.

My welds aren’t the prettiest on the thermostat housing and the water pipe but they hold the coolant so good enough for me.

I picked up 4 ft of -16AN line from extreme psi and had to get creative with my routing. I wanted a clean look that would still allow me to use my intake pipe with air filter. The next thing I will tackle is cleaning up the factory wiring harness in the bay.

 

[Vegas Smith]

That's a tiny little radiator! Nice 20g btw.

 

[Brandon Mau]

That's a tiny little radiator! Nice 20g btw.

I should have weighed my full size radiator full but overall it was done to drop some weight and make working in the turbo area easier. I didn’t like the fact I had to add coolant lines for the new turbo but I wanted it done right.

 

[92AWDHX40]

I love this build.

 

[Brandon Mau]

I love this build.

I’m glad you’re enjoying it. I’m going to try and be a bit more detailed with pictures and explanations so anyone can reference to it and use it on there own if they would like. It’s been awhile since I haven’t had to rush myself to complete it so just trying to take my time. My biggest dilemma right now is deciding if I want to knock the body work out to make it look new again or buy the billet clutch baskets. I’ve always been performance before looks . I still have a few boxes of parts I need to open up so plenty of updates to come.

 

[Brandon Mau]

I’ve been putting it off for years but the time has come to start gutting the factory engine harness. I’ve only opened up the side of the harness that runs under the intake manifold but damn near half of it will be removed as shown in the picture. Left is what I’m keeping and right is being deleted. I see where I can delete roughly 2ft of the coolant temp, coolant gauge and tps wires so at this point every oz counts. I still need to gut the harness side that runs to the trans,bcs etc. I will definitely be uploading more pics of the process as I progress this week.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Finished breaking down the harness and removed all the wires and plugs not being used anymore. Next step will be putting the harness back in and marking where I need to make my break offs. In the process of that I will see about shortening up some areas. The Mitsubishi engineers loved to use electrical tape back in the day that’s for sure. Here is a box I filled up with the wires, loom and electrical tape I removed. Not a huge weight loss a little over 3lbs on this harness on this harness but it should definitely be more cosmetically appealing to the eye. Also made a trip to the dump can with the interior weight reduction I did not weigh any of it maybe 10lbs idk.

 

[Brandon Mau]

The engine harness for the bay is complete. Took a little longer than I thought but I’m happy with how it turned out. I’m still using the shift inhibitor so I had to trace wires and make sure the neutral safety switch was still operational along with my back up lights.

 

[Brandon Mau]

The engine bay is wrapped up for now. Mechanically and wiring/sensor wise in the engine compartment Kratos is finished. I can’t remember the last time I wiped down the bay probably 2011 to be honest so took an hour of my time to polish it up a little. Next area of focus is the interior wiring and more weight reduction.

 

[Brandon Mau]

I had some free time today so I made the relay board and like how it turned out mounted on the firewall. The ignition box just didn’t look right in the bay from last weeks picture so I decided to relocate that in the cab. I love how compact and lightweight the smart 100 is mounted it right behind where the factory radio would be. Still have to finish some wiring up because it looks like a rat nest right now.

 

[Brandon Mau]

Finished wrapping up the wiring in the cab. It was a tedious task but I’m glad I knocked it out. Applied power and fired the car up everything is working as it should so always a win! I wanted to take a small break from the labor intensive weight reduction and installed my carbonetics carbon fiber head light covers. I weighed both and will save 12.6 oz of weight and it looks much better than my old carbon wrapped covers. Next up I haven’t decided lots and lots of work still needs to be completed.