A purpose-built, 1,400+ hp F-350—and an owner determined to make it the world’s fastest 7.3L-powered 4×4 truck.
Any time 7.3L Power Stroke performance takes a significant leap forward, you can usually find Brian Jelich at the top, riding the wave. He’s been pushing the 444 ci, HEUI-injected V-8 to new heights for more than 15 years now, and the latest rendition of his ’00 Super Duty—built with 4-second intentions—all but guarantees this continues to be the case well into the future. From daily driver to drag strip dominator, Brian’s F-350 (nicknamed “Ron Burgundy”) has come a long way since he found it for sale on the side of the road back in 2004. Throughout the truck’s eventful journey, Brian has laid claim to several 7.3L records at one time or another.
Today, the Super Duty’s original steel is gone (save for the cab), most of the frame has been replaced with chromoly tubing, and a TH400 sits in place of the 4R100. But what does remain is the 7.3L Power Stroke V-8—all the way down to the hydraulically actuated fuel injection system. Big oil, huge hybrids, a remote mount 80mm turbo, and three stages of nitrous bring more than 1,400 hp to the table, while front and rear 9-inch axles and four-link suspension, fiberglass body panels, a quick-change transfer case, and carbon fiber driveshafts serve to either lighten the truck or maximize traction. It’s one of the only Pro Mod-caliber 7.3L’s ever built—and you can read all about it here.
Set back deep within the chassis, you’ll find a competition-ready 7.3L Power Stroke built by Kill Devil Diesel. The block’s water jackets have been filled with concrete and the factory based crankshaft is secured thanks to a Hypermax bedplate and ARP main studs. Carrillo rods and fly-cut, forged-aluminum pistons from Mahle Motorsport are part of the externally balanced rotating assembly, and a Gray’s Diesel Performance race cam controls the valve train. Up top, a set of ported and fire-ringed Kill Devil heads—complete with Inconel valves, hardened valve seats, and KDD beehive comp valve springs—anchor to the block by way of ARP head studs.With 455cc, 400-percent over nozzle hybrid injectors from Unlimited Diesel Performance under the valve covers, plenty of high-pressure oil volume must be on tap. So, to properly feed what are essentially the largest off the shelf injectors you can buy, dual high-pressure oil pumps are employed. Brian’s arrangement consists of a Gen3 HPOP bolted on top of a Stage 1 unit from CNC Fabrication. Combined with the 455/400 hybrids (as well as a few well-placed keystrokes via tuning, which Brian performs himself), this dual HPOP setup can support more than 900 hp on fuel alone.A remote mount, 80mm S400 from KC Turbos produces more than 70-psi of boost for the 7.3L to ingest. The T-6 charger features an 11-blade compressor wheel and utilizes BorgWarner’s proven 96mm turbine wheel, which spins inside a 1.32 A/R exhaust housing. A pair of fine-tuned, 46mm external wastegates from Precision Turbo and Engine keep the boost-to-drive pressure ratio very close to 1:1. Paul’s Custom Fabrication and Machine was responsible for making the S480 work, building the stainless steel up-pipes and exhaust manifolds, as well as the cold and hot-side piping that connects with an On 3 Performance intercooler.High horsepower demands that plenty of oil pressure is always available. Brian’s 7.3L is still a wet sump engine, but it makes use of two external oil pumps from Peterson Fluid Systems. The stackable, crank-driven R4 units are mounted one behind the other and boast efficient (and lightweight), 4-lobe, internal aluminum rotors. The truck’s power steering pump, a compact piece made by Sweet Manufacturing, is driven off the back of the inboard R4 pump.Always a fan of N2O, Brian uses a three-stage, pulse width modulated Nitrous Express system to help his Ford get down the track. A sizeable spool stage ramps in progressively on the starting line, but in less than a second after take-off everything is fully on line. “Within 0.75 of a second it’s all coming in,” Brian told us. “I actually need to spray it more.” The billet-aluminum Snyder Performance Engineering nitrous manifold shown here—which served to clean up the nitrous system’s routing—features -8 ORB ports for unrestricted and even nitrous flow.Brian pieced together his own low-pressure fuel supply system along the driver side frame rail, and the proven, no-frills Aeromotive A1000 is at the center of it. The A1000 pulls diesel from the 5-gallon fuel cell located aft of the rear axle and a chassis-mounted Baldwin water separator through 5/8-inch hose. After that, ½-inch hose routes fuel up to a CNC Fabrication distribution block and four-line feed system that supplies fuel to each cylinder head. Using the Aeromotive regulator visible here, Brian keeps fuel pressure set at 65 psi.With a goal of recapturing the title of world’s fastest 4×4 7.3L, Brian said goodbye to the 4R100 platform he’d been running for 20 years. Its replacement is this Pro-Mod Super Max TH400 from Rossler Transmissions. The lightweight, well-vetted three-speed has definitely earned its stripes in diesel drag racing in recent years, even in four-wheel drive applications. Brian’s Rossler is equipped with a Browell blowproof bellhousing, which conceals a Neal Chance billet lockup torque converter. The 12.3-inch diameter, bolt-together converter sports a billet stator that can easily be swapped out to change stall speed. Of course, the TH400 also brings a trans-brake option into the picture.Like a lot of other racers campaigning four-wheel drive trucks in the upper ranks of diesel drag racing, Brian’s TH400 is supported by a quick-change transfer case (commonly referred to as a drop box). This billet-aluminum case version came from SCS Gearbox, and Brian tells us a secondary, quick-change gear set ratio of 0.73:1 has worked well for him thus far. Both the front and rear driveshafts came from PST Technologies and are made of carbon fiber. While they save weight, their primary purpose is for safety. “They turn to dust in the event of a failure,” Brian told us.Cutting weight without sacrificing strength was key in making Brian’s Super Duty a 4-second contender. So, the Dana 60 up front was ditched, along with the 10.5-inch Sterling out back. Now, thanks to the fabrication skills of Nathannial DeLong at Rudy’s Performance Parts, a pair of 9-inch axles rest under the truck. Both make use of Moser Engineering housings with aluminum third members from Strange Engineering. The rear 9-inch is a 40-spline unit with a full floater kit from Moser, while the front 9-inch sports 31-spline axle shafts, along with Jeep JK outers and hub bearings. The steering rack was originally intended for a rear-wheel drive second-gen Dodge.Leaf springs have been missing from Brian’s F-350 since 2017, and these double-adjustable QA1 coilover shocks have been along for the ride on countless 5-second passes. Now tied in with the 9-inch axles, they’ve required zero input. In fact, the truck’s chassis proved so happy right out of the gate that it cut 1.2-second 60-foots. Here, you get a good look at the truck’s rear four-link suspension, its Wilwood brakes, and even some of the TIG-welded, chromoly tube chassis.Brian’s truck has also been graced with its front and rear four-link suspension systems since 2017, but friend and fellow racer Nathannial DeLong handled the fabrication required to make everything work with the 9-inch axles. With the help of an online four-link calculator, as well as sticking close to where it was set up with the factory axles in place, very little adjustment was needed to get the truck to make consistent A to B passes. In fact, one of Brian’s very first trips through the eighth-mile resulted in an effortless, 5.80-second elapsed time.The final say in traction boils down to the Mickey Thompson ET Drag slicks Brian has positioned at every corner of the truck. They measure 29.5/10.5-15W and feature the M5 compound that’s well-suited for heavier (over 3,000 pounds) vehicles with four-link suspensions. The slicks are mounted to 15×10-inch single bead lock Holeshot wheels with a 5 on 5.5 bolt pattern. An added bonus is that, thanks to the 9-inch axle swap, the 10.5-inch wide slicks don’t have to come off in order to load the truck into Brian’s enclosed race trailer.At the same time the truck was being fitted with 9-inch axles, it was also completely rewired. Now an ECU Master PMU16, which CAN buses up to the ECU Master ADU7 monitor shown, powers everything in the truck. And thanks to a helping hand from WP Developments, the PMU16 is also used to control transmission bump functionality. Other than its outer shell (which remains steel), the cab’s interior was treated to a full-on gutting and lightening program. Some of the roll cage, which meets the SFI 25.6 chassis specification (and that was originally built by Paul’s Custom Fabrication and Machine) is visible here.7.3L lovers will recognize these prehistoric-looking modules as the injector driver module (IDM, left) and powertrain control module (PCM) from a ’99-’03 Super Duty. The IDM is a modified, high-voltage unit from Diesel Technology of Chattanooga and the PCM has been fine-tuned by way of a Hydra Chip and Minotaur software from Power Hungry Performance. For more than 15 years, Brian has been perfecting his mastery of PHP’s industry standard tuning software and helped himself to several records in the process. His company, Jelibuilt Performance, has fine-tuned thousands of 7.3L’s using the Minotaur program. At this point, Brian’s truck is always set on kill, and his timeslips so far indicate he’s applying more than 1,300 hp to the track.As mentioned, the cab is still the factory steel piece, but the front clip, bed sides, and doors are all fiberglass—and sourced from GTS Fiberglass & Design. The windows and back glass are made from 1/8-inch thick Lexan, while the windshield remains factory glass. A curb weight of 3,750 pounds makes Brian’s Ford one of the lightest Super Duty’s in existence, and the perfect candidate for the Outlaw Diesel Super Series’ recently created Pro Truck class. Beyond ODSS, you’ll find Brian competing in the Outlaw category at Diesel Truck Wars.Following a few shakedown passes back in March, Brian locked the truck up in its box and waited for the ODSS season opener, Rudy’s Spring Truck Jam, at Rockingham Dragway. There, Brian’s Ford did exactly what he told us it would: go 5.20s with ease. Right off the trailer, it went 5.27 at 131 mph—a new personal best for Brian and just 0.138 seconds off the 4×4 7.3L record currently held by Zack Pierce. The next day, Brian turned in a repeat effort with the truck going 5.27 once again, this time at an even faster 133 mph. A few hours later, he accepted his trophy and the $2,500 payout for winning the Pro Truck class.
