Mark Evison Project Report

20 Sep Mark Evison Project Report

The Mark Evison Foundation kindly sponsored our group to undertake a project to explore the functionality and artistry of a car engine.

Our group 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 Sixth 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 2^nd 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 1^st 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 air react).  For the 2^nd 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 two days a lot had happened including changes we made to the plan.  This experience taught us a lot including team working skills; delegation and of course 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 process of spending many hours cleaning every corner of the engine to ensure as much grime and grease had 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.

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 strength 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 passions allowing us to learn from each other along with developing our own personal skills in the process.

Ayaan, Daniel, Jonjoe and Rama Year 13