Hello Eticket, it been a long time. You summed it up just about right. Don't get me wrong the LS is a great set up. I went a 6.04 in the 1/8 on stock 4.8 motor @29 psi plus 135 hp of nitrous. Only valve springs push rods and the trunion rocker bearing were upgraded all else stock even the head gaskets and rod bolts were stock oh and the cam... 300 dollar Craigs list long block.
So for the money you just cant beat an LS truck motor. But... I got to the point to where I got worried I was gonna throw a rod out the side of the block and probably right on the top end of the track and get my self hurt with the stock rods at their limit. So my initial plan was to build a 4.8 with Callies magnum crank and Oliver rods. I did my research and all these guys with unlimited budgets were selling their 30k dollar LS motors to go to a turbo big block. Me not having unlimited funds decided to skip that step and just go straight to the big block.
So I built a big bore 4.5" (so I can get good flowing heads) with a 4" stroke. 509 cu/in. Along with a Callies magnum crank Oliver Big Block Max rods and a set of CNC ported BBX3 Brodix heads on sitting in a Dart block with billet caps. Valve train is a mechanical Bullet cam with crower steel rockers and Comp cams belt drive.
This is way more motor than my car can currently handle with twin 84mm turbos and nitrous. But I figure I can get the car up and running and make the chassis changes along the way. Im on a TCI th400 so Im sure that thing wont last long behind this motor, but it not in the budget for the Rossler TH210 yet. So I will just run it at a low boost setting as I get all the other items sorted out. Im sure it will go 6.xxx in the 1/8 mile at about 2-4 psi. and in the low 4's @ 30+ psi with the correct chaissis setup and some weight reduction etc.
So the bottom line is, it depends on budget, I didn't plan on building a 35k dollar twin turbo big block and I was pretty much happy with the turbo 4.8 but as Eticket said I kinda sucked my self into this monster.