Loud is always willing to answer for me since he knows what's in my mind better than I do.
I'll simply say this---When I was a kid, I knew a guy who put the entire Merlin engine from a P-51 into an early Ford sedan and drove it on the street---not quite as a grocery-getter, but... Alongside such a feat, transplanting one AJ engine into another AJ engine bay would be a lesser effort.
I worked at Ford for some years and have raced Fords for all my life since I was 16 and made my first trip down a quarter-mile---in a '53 Merc. I don't begin to know everything about everything but I know who knows who---and that's much better.
When FoMoCo had the prototype operation at McLaren do a feasibility study regarding putting a 4.6 V-8 into the LS, part of what the McLaren people did was to cast, from magnesium, a 'flatter' intake manifold so the factory hood could still be used. Ultimately, they built two complete running cars. I was writing an engine series for Mustang Illustrated Magazine at the time and dealing with an engineer who was doing, among other things, liaison between the 'Skunk-Works' at Ford and the McLaren people. On several occasions, I met him in the prototype shop and while there I got a tour. I even drove one of the LSs for a few blocks in the neighborhood. That project died due to the inability of inserting the 4.6 engine/trans from underneath. They'd have had to re-do the entire section of the assembly floor.
Is it simpler to put a loud muffler set-up on an LS than to switch one AJ engine for another similar one? Of course! But the engine project IS eminently do-able. The LS ECM is re-programmable and much of the government-mandated 'stuff' can be done away with. When all the ECM input/outputs for the '02 LS are getting readings within the programmed parameters, it'll be happy. There're a lot of extraneous 'required' items that can be eliminated to both clean-up and simplify the engine compartment. I live in Michigan---we no longer even have inspections.
All the comfort items in the car from the factory will be retained. Auxiliary gauges will provide additional information regarding the added features.
KS