If you build it right it should last just as long as any other honda engine. If you half ass it or just slap a head on and rev the crap out of it, its not going to last. I think thats why so many people frown upon ls vtec. Its because they think they can just go slap a vtec head on an ls and it should rev to 8200. Then they rev the crap out of it and it blows. Then they say oh LS Vtec isnt reliable. On LSvtec it pretty much just depends on how you drive it and how it was built. If you do it the right way, yes its going to be expensive. But youll be happy that you wont have to worry bout your engine blowing or how reliable it is.