First Winter Build - All Suggestions/Pointers Appreciated

[98DiamondStar]

Well the time has come for an engine build and, as always, I come to DSMTuners for the wealth of knowledge and guidance.
First off, my Brother and I are very motivated to achieve our goal of 500whp. That being said, I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions,pointers, or first hand good/bad experiences, and lessons learned about their different builds. I'm looking for your recommendations on various components such as rod/piston combinations, paired up with various head work, cams/cam-gears etc.
I want to give a big thank you in advance to anybody that responds, I would be lost without such a great community to learn from. -Ryan&Spark-

 

[90_eclipse]

I've been using my DSM as a daily driver but has been modded quite a bit throughout it's time, and I'm still in the process of it...

Short and simple, before considering anything, definitely do maintenance. If you're looking for a 500whp, always replace with OEM or better- ESPECIALLY WITH THE TIMING BELT. OEM's are pretty damn good, but the crap you get at autozone will skip teeth in the higher RPM's like that's it's job. From all my friends who have high builds, don't use COP's. The stock coil pack is very strong. It looks pretty with a COP, but you might end up misfiring a lot with high boost (plus the money can go somewhere else).

272/272 cams seem like a pretty good match up and are relatively popular among the DSMers here.

I personally don't use tubular manifolds. Just stick with a forced performance mani, or any other cast manifold. and maybe a 20g?

 

[98DiamondStar]

Yes yes, I completely agree with staying OEM on the timing belt, As far as the COP thank you very much for that input, i was considering going with a SparkTech wireless ignition system. I am running with a forced performance cast manifold right now, by far the best in my book.