A Turbo LS can be very reliable, but many aren't because many people have ghetto fuel management and/or no tuning. Everyone seemed to think that I would blow mine up with just street driving, and that it would not even withstand one trip to a road course track. Well, I've taken it to a road course four times now, have done just as many autocrosses, and I have beaten on it just as badly every day for several months. I've done many 100+ mile trips at over 100 MPH, and boosting most of the way. I've had the turbo and manifold glowing bright red more times than I can count. I've also had it up to extremely high speeds many times as well. It's still running strong.
The only time that the engine has started to get hot was after a few laps on a road course on a hot day with the stock radiator. A Spoon thermostat and thermoswitch seemed to help for other trips out there after that, but an upgraded radiator is really what's needed, so I got a Fluidyne.
Now here's what I have done differently from most kids who blow up their turbo Hondas:
-Base timing retarded to 14 degrees
-Mobil 1 0w40 synthetic oil, RSX filter, and an oil pressure gauge. I frequently check the oil level too.
-Fuel management that works: Walbro 255 l/hr fuel pump, DSM 450cc injectors, and an AFC (initially set to -38% at all RPMs to compensate for the injectors, then get it tuned right away). I actually use a VAFC on my LS so that I get 16 adjustment points (I set the VTEC point to 4000; Lo cam map from 1000-4000, Hi map from 4000-7000). It works really well, passes emissions, and does not throw a check engine light. When the car is tuned, they will tune the wide throttle map, but don't forget about narrow throttle... I copied the wide throttle settings (that were determined by dyno tuning with a wideband) and leaned them out very slightly (only a few percent). My throttle points are 20% low and 50% high, so that it will go to the wide map as soon as I get on it. Fuel economy isn't bad at all, unless I go to the race track (about 15 mpg out there, lol).
Other people have been known to use extremely ghetto things like check valves (aka Missing Link; blinds ECU once you hit boost), a FMU (Fuel Management Unit; increases fuel pressure to force more through the injectors), or a "hacked" AFC (not hooked up the way it's meant to be; they plug the TPS into the MAP input or some crap like that). Those things are bad ideas and will not work well, but a lot of people insist that you need that crap, and many never even attempt to test or tune it with a wideband. I think it's no coincedence that a lot of people blow up their turbo Hondas.
Your tuning needs to be done using a wideband, with the engine at WOT and while some load is on it (ie take it to a dyno). Even though you are tuning for a target A/F ratio (I went with about 12.5:1), not power, a dyno is needed to put appropriate amount of load on the engine. That load has a significant effect on the turbo.