My opinion doesn't count for much because I am in my rookie season of hotrodding myself. However, I'll put my thoughts in anyways.

500 HP is nothing if your truck won't hook...Yea, its good for sound and burnouts but if thats all you can do, you'll get spanked by a hooptie

My opinion would be to build a nice 350 HP engine and spend the rest of your cash on things like traction bars, good tires, maybe some safetly precautions like a cage and harnesses...

One of the most true things i've ever heard was "It doesn't matter so much as how much power you can have...What matters is that you can APPLY the power than you HAVE"

In other words, there is no reason for 500 HP if you can't apply all 500 of it to the street. Especially in something as light as an S10...They don't need hardly anything to fly.