Originally Posted by wstar

It's a lot more custom fabrication and unknowns going the LS route, not the least of which is transmission compatibility or replacement. Then you've got the custom mounts, standalone ECU, all the engine bay wiring from scratch, all the dash and gauges from scratch (with new aftermarket gauges), etc. It's in a whole different league in terms of labor hours, fabrication, and random difficulties vs putting a VQ back in there, even if the raw engine+trans costs were comparable.

Another thought: the stock ABS controller is *probably* (but I really don't know) reliant on its connection to the stock ECU due to VDC interplay, etc. So if you're swapping to a new LS1 ECU, you're probably having to throw out the ABS controller too, and either get a custom racing one or make something compatible work...