Students repair engine for a family in need

Graduating Automotive students at Sinclair are required to take a service operations course as a capstone class. The ultimate goal of the course is to have students work on live jobs for faculty and staff, as well as another project that will result in a car being donated to a person in need.
The car that will be repaired for the donation this summer is a 2004 Dodge Stratus SXT. The engine that came with the car has a reported knocking noise. So, for the sake of time, the class is hoping that a new engine will be donated, rather than having to repair the old one.
“We’d like to get the car turned around and re-donated as soon as we can,” said Justin Morgan, instructor of the service operations course. “That might be an option depending on the donation of an engine. An engine is a pretty expensive part.”
Morgan said he hopes that an engine donation will come soon, but he is already thankful for the donation of the car itself.
“We were fortunate enough to have a car donated, let alone an engine,” said Morgan.
Morgan and Sinclair Professor Charles Taylor worked with Erwin Chrysler Jeep Dodge to acquire the Dodge Stratus.
Once the car is repaired, Morgan said it will be given back to the dealership to be donated to someone in need.
“We’d rather provide the service of the labor being done instead of the actual donation,” said Morgan.
Sinclair’s faculty and staff have the option of having their vehicles repaired by the class. However, due to insurance purposes, students don’t have that option. The department also has vehicles donated to them for educational use.
“Our cars that we get donated for students to work on are cars that cannot actually be driven on the highways,” said Morgan, “There are cars that are donated from GM, Chrysler, Honda and Ford, and those vehicles are donated for instructional use only. They need to be scrapped when they’re done so there’s no profit to be gained by the school.”
Various manufacturers have given Sinclair new engines for the students to work on, however, they are for training purposes only and cannot be used for the service learning project.
For the eight students working in the class, their final goal is to have the car ready for  donation by July 24.
Morgan said the class is conducted like a business with live jobs and live repairs. The students do most of the work by themselves, while the course instructor and lab technician try to stay as hands off as possible, with the exception of a student needing help.