I was judging the age based on the avatar which shows a 94-97. And from sounds of it he hasn't rebuilt it.
Haha man I wish that was the case. I didn't cheap out on any of my builds, especially the first round. So I don't assume money was the reason mine failed. Trust was. I trusted their spec sheet instead of checking myself. I just think logically, value for the dollar that modding an LS motor is silly. You could buy a gsr swap, and sell the LS to make up some of that coin. The money out of pocket in the end will only be a few hundred and you'll already be stronger and faster...just saying. Better foundation to build on.
When in doubt go with what honda did. Thats my logic really.
I will say this though, if you blow the LS motor you can just buy another one for like 500, slap your s*** back on and go again. It is a cheap way to have fun, but opening up an LS motor to change pistons and do rodbolts...just dumb. Don't even open it up. Run till it blows and buy another. Otherwise stick with gsr/type r foundation.
Sorry if that came out wrong but I wasn't trying to say that your builds were bad or cheap, just that I know you had bad luck with them, and a lot of other people have had bad luck with builds. Majority of builds that get done on these cars are cheap, so the chances of having a "cheap" build go bad is high, which is why cheap builds get a bad name!
Anyway, NO I definitely would NOT open an LS for anything other than basic maintenance. YES I agree with you 100% that throwing rods, pistons, cams, and any other parts at an LS is a waste of money. Not that it's a bad motor, but for resale you'll have an easier time getting your money out of a built up VTEC motor. But if your stock LS runs fine, spending $2000 and piecing together a small turbo kit for it correctly is perfectly acceptable and reliable if done correctly. I've done it, friends have done it, hundreds if not thousands more have done it.
My friend Joe had 60-70k miles on his turbo LS, he bought the car new in 2000 and and we turbo'd it in 2002, off the shelf turbonetics kit, sold it in 2006; zero problems. On the other extreme I turbo'd a 91 4dr LS, stock LS motor with 170k on it, drove it for 20k miles, zero problems, built the shit out of an LS motor for it, bigger turbo, blew it up in a year.
I think turboing a stock LS or GSR/ITR motor is more reliable than any build, you're not gonna touch the power with a N/A vtec motor unless you throw about $4-5k in it, and it won't be anywhere near as reliable as a stock small turbo motor. Plus you're right, vtec motors are expensive, and when you break one it's costly. Chances are you'll fuck something up, and fucking up a $500 motor can be cured with a 6 pack.