[GreaseDog]

Originally Posted by ChadM89

And then the FIRST thing they do is dismantle the front end of the chevy, completely remove the engine and tranny (way more work in the first 10 minutes of the show than most people are going to be willing and/or able to do), then put on several thousands of dollars worth of parts (way outside of most people's budgets).

Sigh.

The Edelbrock EFI system they installed alone costs about 2,400 bucks. For just under a grand you can get a similar Edelbrock MPFI system which uses the stock throttle body (with stock injectors removed) and the stock computer. I would have MUCH rather seen them go that route and maintain the "Average Joe Budget Build" feel of the build-up. And leave the motor in there to do it. They didn't do anything that they actually needed to remove the engine OR tranny for. The only thing they did on the bottom end was replace the main seal and oil pump. And the only thing they did on the tranny was install the shift kit. You can do all of those things from underneath the vehicle just as easily as you can pop on a new intake manifold and heads with the motor still sitting in the truck.

I just feel like they too-easily go into that "Oh we'll just yank it all apart, no big deal." mentality because they've got all the space, equipment and time to do that sort of thing and it's hard for them to get into the Every Man mentality of "I'm not going to do any more work than I actually have to.", which definitely includes taking my truck halfway apart just to do a top-end rebuild. Likewise they should have set a realistic budget in order to see what kinds of mods give you the most bang for the buck and most people could afford. Yes that means they'd have to make some compromises but guess what, that's exactly what all of us out here in the real world have to do. So some guidance on which things are best to do when you can't do everything you want would have been far more practical and helpful.

After watching it, I was left feeling like I might as well be watching a complete frame-off, sky's-the-limit project build.

what you fail to realize with their logic of pulling the truck completely apart... how hard is it to stuff a camera underneath a truck and try to work on it at the same time? NOT EASY. its more of a filming thing.