So 550 wheel is safe with a stock bottom end and stock 5sp? Clutch is the only week point?

 

I wouldn't say safe, if you hook or wheel hop with that things could break...
And you're not making 550rwhp with stock cubes

 

It’ll be fine…

 

If you around 117 LSA on a cam with a good tune and stock idle you won’t get any noticeable chop. Especially with an X-pipe

 

“Safe” is subjective and highly contingent on tune and intended abuse. As you can imagine what is “safe” to some may not be “safe” for others. Depends on how hard you are on toys and sometimes how lucky you are. But there are plenty of folks scooting around with FI on mostly stock internals (sans stock springs) with 550whp without issue for years and plenty of miles.

I’ve blown up a H/C LS1 with 391/379 at the wheels without FI. #7 ringland let go while racing. I’ve also grenade’d a torque tube and two 4.10 diffs without FI at both 391whp and 428whp. And I’ve gone through 2 OE clutches before I woke up and upgraded. Many others get buy just fine for the life of ownership with 100 to 200whp+ worth of upgrades coupled with mostly stock everything else. They also tend to do more DQ parking lot squats than spirited driving or racing.

In my 20’s and early 30’s there wasn’t much of anything with an engine that I’d consider “safe” around me. But now at almost 50 I’m much more tame and don’t track my stuff anymore…but my current build has forged internals. Just in case I have a relapse.

If you relate more to a DQ dude you’ll likely be fine for the life of ownership without upgrading everything. If you’re more like young me then get your wallet ready to either do it right or fix a bunch of broken sh*t. Or both.

 

My driving style spans the spectrum from commute to outright abuse. I have sheered the bolts off the rear coupler adapter end when NA for example when down shifting hard.

The LS is a supremely strong shortblock which reaches into the 800rw zone commonly. More guys here need to follow Sloppy Mechanics on FB and how they take quarter million mile truck engines, gap the rings, toss a four hundred dollar Chinese turbo on it and abuse it through multiple seasons at the track making 800rw.

Tune is key with all, and especially boost. Your local Larry Laptop warrior is not the guy to go to for example.

My first SC car ran 10# boost for about 35k miles or more. Only disassembled to sell the blower to afford mods on the other C5. The car ate it up. I did also do supporting mods over time. Valve springs, bushings, dual plate clutch, trans mount, diff brace. Driving that stock h/c car with 10# boost was equal to having your cake and eating it too.

 

well, it's really the torque you need to worry about not the horse power but , assuming you meant a 550hp ish setup, then yeah, stock setup is fine. IF you're tracking it or doing quarter miles, something willl break, and more likely than not it will be something that is stock. A track car though is a completly different beast -- things will inevitably break, and you expect that. But for daily driving, spirited driving, even hard driving, the stock setup is plenty strong for what I'm running (530hp at the wheels).
I replaced the clutch with a c6 z06 clutch, mostly because mine was shot. But otherwise the stock clutch should also be fine.

 

I have a BTR stage 2 cam. It doesn't have much "chop" to the idle. If you went with a stage 1 cam it would probably satisfy your auditory requirements. Long tube headers are going to change the sound a lot. But if you want to increase HP, you really should consider a new cam. Need to increase lift and duration over the stock cam. Maybe find a cam that does that without any overlap and it wouldn't have the "chop".