NAVYBLUE210

Another suggestion, I would replicate DarthV8rs build with the
Following changes.
LS3 Block (370" VS 347") 4.065 Bore
MMS 235 Cathedral Heads out of the box with light valves
And springs for Cam Motion LLSR (should be good for 15K miles
Between spring replacement check lash@ ~5K intervals to be safe)
FAST 102 for 6500 HP peak carry to ~7K RPM
MMS MSD Intake (Must be ported!) ~7000 HP Peak carry
To ~7500 RPM.
Strongly consider Dailey Engineering Dry Sump with
Auto X & Especially HPDE.
Doing Hot Hone with thin rings combined with Vacuum from
Dry Sump worth at least 30-40 HP plus reliability of
Dry sump.
Don't need to go as extreme as my build but I think you could
Reach 550 RWHP ~7000RWHP and have Phenominal
Driveabilty,Throttle response and decent fuel mileage for
Daily Driver with something like 235*/239* .620"/.600" 114*+3*
(to compare to HR specs of ~ 229*/233*) 12-15" of
Vacuum allows for at least 500 RPM Carry after peak &
LLSR adds 1000+ RPM valvetrain stability/insurance
Beyond HR.
Food for thought.

JakeFusion

iTrader: (7)

I like that setup. I would go all out and do the LS7 block and run the Mamofied TFS LS7 heads and Mamo MSD LS7 intake. With a 2" header and a decent LLSR cam... 630-650rwhp with the dry sump and pump gas. Would rev to 7500 and make power everywhere.

S2KIWI

For that budget and simplicity I'd just go a 575hp LS3 crate with a warranty and beat on it all day, save the change for other mods, or commission a dart 442 or similar from a renowned builder. LS7 crate is not the best bang for buck with aftermarket blocks out there, unless you must save a few lbs.

If you don't go that route, I'd highly suggest either way going NA build for instant response, no thermal soak on heavy autox/track days and general lack of assfuckery issues to fix if you want reliable. After racing superbikes, I try to apply that easy formula to cars. Keep it light, keep it NA and enjoy it more than the typical turbo guy ******* around with a loose intercooler band every damn trackday.

Also keep in mind going route I have gone (.625 cam in an LS3 with all the IHE boltons) is probably looking at 10-20,000km spring change and top end inspection intervals, likely less if heavily tracked more than street in future. Hence the keep it simple as you sound like you have similar goals as me just less willing to compromise on track duty..

edit: also as mentioned above, dry sump. If you're pulling over 1-1.2g lateral sustained for over a second or two, you will starve the mains ever so slightly and increasingly worse with every second your in the sweeper, especially in left hand sweepers. Accusumps may save you with Auto-X but if you intend to track, especially with slicks or high grip tyres, dry sump is the only known method to prevent this. Secret is priority main + more than enough oil to just flood the heads and not worry about running out. From my research DS is only worth 10-20HP though this does depend on the vacuum - to do the upper levels of that you're looking at 4-5 stage pumps and the rest which becomes difficult to fit with centre block mounts, if you do not mount them reverse.. basically fitting the DS stuff becomes a bitch, it's one of the hardest things in my build, had to actually wait for a new model of tank to be available to fit it all in (with thanks to Aviaid!).

Another thing to consider with LS oiling is the dry sump increases your oil volume significantly. I'm running twice as much oil as the LS3 usually has with a 2gal external tank. To get around extremely long warm up times I have two approaches;
1: Heater is to be installed in DS tank
2: Very likely to install a water:oil heat exchanger to further help keep everything at good operating temperature

Good luck!