[Pampered-Z]

Not trying to be a jerk or challenge you, but just some things to think about as far as your plans 400 N/A with a 150 shot = 550 HP. but 700 HP is a much bigger number and you are really looking at stepping up notches on the parts quality.

If you planning on a 383 W/ nitris and targeting 550HP then you could use the economy forged parts. But for 700 HP you need allot more so make sure you have the budget, money goes quickly when you need all the other stuff to support that HP even after you build the shortblock.

Your talking 700HP so you're talking about allot of stress on the parts, you want quality parts: Crank, rods, piston, rings, sprayed caps. And either 400 or 550 N/A, since it's an LT1 you need to upgrade Oil pump, Pan, double roller conversion = also requires elec water pump. Then you need to fuel the engine, upgrades to the pump and injectors right away. Once you break the 600 HP barrier you may need to upgrade the fuel lines and probably external fuel pump(s) as well. And then the rest of the drive train needs to be beefed to handle it too.

But as far as brand goes, don't think about brand as much as the quality. many of the manufactures sell from budget to high quality parts. Everything that I've seen people break were really less of the quality of the crank as it was the rest of the build, specially people using economy stuff that was basically stuffed into a stock block and being spun high into the RPMs. The LT1 snapping cranks has allot to do with the other parts people used as well. Built with the right parts failures are very rare.