Don't skimp and cut corners, I think its worth the money to have a shop do the work. You should probably start from the ground up, you can make lots of power that becomes useless if you can't get it to the ground.

im not a fan of letting shops do work that i can do myself and i enjoy doing it plus its nice to say you did the work yourself

Well whatever floats your boat, good luck!

let a shop install your cam bearings and balance the rods/reciprocating assembly. you can do the work yourself, but without experience you can turn a good motor into an expensive paperweight.

start by reading - it's always good to know what you are getting yourself into before you are in up to your neck. i'd suggest any number of books under the S.A. Design umbrella. specifically, How to Rebuild the Small-Block Chevrolet with Larry Atherton and Larry Schreib, the How to Build Horsepower series of books by David Vizard, the step-by-step guide to Engine Blueprinting by Rick Voegelin, How to Build Max Performance Chevy Small Blocks on a Budget by David Vizard (which is also the How to build Horsepower, vol. 3), and How to Build High Performance LS1/LS6 V-8s.

even if you have built motors before, these books are priceless reference manuals for the "little things" we sometimes overlook that can lead to higher performance.

good luck with your project.

If you have a 98 you are realisyically looking at close to $8000-$10000 to run your car with 500HP. Need a new fuel system, rear, suspension, bottom end, top end etc etc. My suggestions are as follows

#1- do a mild cam (like the GMPP hot cam, I had it and it was incredibly fast!) and then call it a day.
#2 - Forget the heads and cam package and buy a complete motor, Ididn't know you had a 98, it causes all kinds of other difficulties, you can get a 402 nowadays for less money then what you are planning to do to your stock engine, then sell off your old parts to offset the cost.

im gunna start with suspension n go from there