Hey there. Non US too here, but lucky enough to have a lot of LS's around courtesy of GM Australia.
There is a lot of subtle differences, intakes, power ratings etc but if you plan to modify they're pretty insignificant.
One could write a book on your questions - if fact someone has. Jump on Amazon and get "How to build and modify GM LS Series Engines" J. Potak. They have heaps of other titles on swaps/mods as well.
Check out the Conversion/Hybrid section on ls1tech.com too.
Nice place of the world you are
