Their story, in their words….
We were united by an interest in cars, this made us feel like we ought to take on the challenge first hand to truly experience how the engine in cars work. We would tear apart the engine to the individual bolts and nuts and then put it back together, and then we would take it apart to spray paint just the engine block. We would then go on to make it into a flower pot and donate it to our school to put in the 6th Form Garden.
We planned to get in contact with many garages and scrapyards to find and buy cheap engines that we could disassemble. This proved to be easier said than done. In the end we managed to secure help and guidance by a close associate who owned Khalsa Motors Garage. They were very generous and handled the acquisition and all the logistical necessities. Our plan was to initially spend a day on the disassembly and rebuilding part and the 2nd day was when we would prep and paint the engine block. However, during the project certain screws and bolts had to be broken, we also noticed that a camshaft was broken in half. When we finished the 1st day, we had only separated the engine block from the cylinder head. The head houses all the rods and linkages which open and close the valves to allow fuel and air into the concealed combustion chamber (where the fuel and are react). For the 2nd day our plan changed and we decided to remove the crankshaft and hammer the pistons out. This will leave us with just the engine block. We were able to prepare the metal and spray paint it that noon. Over the course of 2 days a lot had happened including changes we made to the plan. This experience taught us a lot including Team working skills; Delegation and ofcourse the main reason being to teach ourselves about how the internal combustion engine works.
During our project, our group was able to develop a range of lifelong skills like resilience through the complete process of spending many hours cleaning every corner of the engine to ensure as much grime and grease have been removed to ensure the spray paint apply effectively. We also developed a strong teamwork ethic with the ability to work cohesively as a unit by ensuring we all equally contributed to removing various parts of the engine and ensuring everyone had a chance. Good time management, flexibility and adaptability meant as a team we were able to complete our project in the predicted two days allowing flexible time management when each person in the group demonstrated their strength through various tasks in taking apart the engine. Through this whole amazing and eye-opening experience understanding in key depth how an engine fully operates to the various mechanical tools needed to take apart the engine have built strengh and courage within us as a team to gain better insight into the world of engineering and innovation. As a team we have enjoyed every moment growing as individuals and exploring new time passions allowing us to learn from each other along with developing our own personal skills in the process.
From the first time of using the key tools to take apart the engine, to the final spray painting of the engine, this project has taught us, as a group, that with a bit of teamwork anything is possible allowing us to fulfil one of many lifelong bucket list goals to help us see a range of amazing activities that inspire us as a group to be better and do better. Along with, the major advantage of having fun as a group and enjoying each and every moment achieving something we otherwise would’ve not considered which truly is an achievement to stand on.
