The familiar, and in this case, the very welcome big brown UPS Truck, pulled into Cummins West at 9:30 am with our new engine exhaust manifold pictured above. The not so straight, old manifold is pictured below. Around 10:30 am, Ray, the technician who had disassembled our engine, was back to work on our traveling house, and by noon, we fired up the Cummins ISL, 400 horsepower engine. This time, there were no whistling, squeching noises, it just purred like a kitten.
While taking care of the bill, (our portion was $100) I thanked both Steve, the Service Manager, and Ray, the tech, for the great service. Even though we just dropped in on them, Steve fit us into the schedule, got our parts ordered, and made sure that we were kept informed of exactly what was going on. Ray was more than competent. When I first explained the problem, instead of looking at the back of the engine, he crawled under, and had the problem diagnosed in just a few seconds. I remember wondering why he wasn't looking at the fan belts, and soon learned why. His many years of experience lead him to another area, and when he started working on the engine from within our bedroom, I could see first hand that this guy was really good at what he does. Not only was he an excellent wrench, he was very pleasant to deal with, and didn't have the typical attitude of us interrupting his day. Both of these guys are assets to the business, and were a pleasure to deal with. It's not likely that we will need the services of Cummins West in Redding ever again, but if I was ever close and needed some work done to my engine, I wouldn't hesitate to drive a few hours to get there.
If there was any negative out of this entire experience, it was when I discovered that our new exhaust manifold was made in China! After Ray took the new manifold out of the box, I saw what you see above, and said to myself, no wonder we have so many people looking for jobs in this country. When I looked a little closer at the old manifold, yep, you guessed it, also made in the same place. Now, I had a different perspective on why the old manifold started leaking, and couldn't help but think we might be faced again with the same problem down the road. Come on Cummins! You're about as American as apple pie. Even if you have to charge a few more bucks for your parts, I for one will not mind paying the extra, if those parts are made in the good ole U. S. of A. Our day ended in the Camp Wal-Mart parking lot, in Susanville, CA. Today, we'll try and find an RV park in the Reno area for a few days, and catch some of the action at the Reno Air Races.
The familiar, and in this case, the very welcome big brown UPS Truck, pulled into Cummins West at 9:30 am with our new engine exhaust manifold pictured above. The not so straight, old manifold is pictured below. Around 10:30 am, Ray, the technician who had disassembled our engine, was back to work on our traveling house, and by noon, we fired up the Cummins ISL, 400 horsepower engine. This time, there were no whistling, squeching noises, it just purred like a kitten.
While taking care of the bill, (our portion was $100) I thanked both Steve, the Service Manager, and Ray, the tech, for the great service. Even though we just dropped in on them, Steve fit us into the schedule, got our parts ordered, and made sure that we were kept informed of exactly what was going on. Ray was more than competent. When I first explained the problem, instead of looking at the back of the engine, he crawled under, and had the problem diagnosed in just a few seconds. I remember wondering why he wasn't looking at the fan belts, and soon learned why. His many years of experience lead him to another area, and when he started working on the engine from within our bedroom, I could see first hand that this guy was really good at what he does. Not only was he an excellent wrench, he was very pleasant to deal with, and didn't have the typical attitude of us interrupting his day. Both of these guys are assets to the business, and were a pleasure to deal with. It's not likely that we will need the services of Cummins West in Redding ever again, but if I was ever close and needed some work done to my engine, I wouldn't hesitate to drive a few hours to get there. 
If there was any negative out of this entire experience, it was when I discovered that our new exhaust manifold was made in China! After Ray took the new manifold out of the box, I saw what you see above, and said to myself, no wonder we have so many people looking for jobs in this country. When I looked a little closer at the old manifold, yep, you guessed it, also made in the same place. Now, I had a different perspective on why the old manifold started leaking, and couldn't help but think we might be faced again with the same problem down the road. Come on Cummins! You're about as American as apple pie. Even if you have to charge a few more bucks for your parts, I for one will not mind paying the extra, if those parts are made in the good ole U. S. of A. Our day ended in the Camp Wal-Mart parking lot, in Susanville, CA. Today, we'll try and find an RV park in the Reno area for a few days, and catch some of the action at the Reno Air Races.
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