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Ford Escort SPI Cylinder Head

Ford Escort SPI intake portsEscort SPI exhaust ports

These are pictures of a ported 98 Ford Escort SPI head. As you can see the intake side (top left) is rather strange looking. The exhaust side (top right) looks the same as all CVH engines since 1981. The same head is used on the 97-up Mercury Tracer and similar in the Ford Focus SPI..

Ford Escort SPI intake portsSplit Port Injection controller

This gives you a better look at the Split-Port arrangement on the intake side. The top right picture shows the IMRC and the  Split-Port valves that controls the flow into the high-speed (round) port. This is shown from the side that goes against the intake ports in the head. The half-moon shaped port is for high velocity flow and a part throttle torque increase.
Ford Focus SPI chamber unportedFord Escort SPI chamber ported

Another look from the combustion chamber. The head on the right has been ported and you can see how much smoother everything is, especially around the valve seats and the slimmed down port divider.

Ford Escort SPI rocker armsFord Escort SPI block & pistons

This is a shot under the valve cover. The roller lifters are centered by the yellow metal retainers. The later engines also use a conical valve spring as seen above. The picture at the right shows the top of the Escort 2.0L SPI block. It uses a pop-up piston and special valve reliefs. Any other head will not fit without machining the top of the pistons. The bottoms of the valves are dished out and the piston crowns fits into these areas.

CVH / SPI valves

The valves at the top are from a 1998 SPI engine, the lower ones from a 1995 SEFI engine. There is alot of size difference. This is the largest intake valve ever put in an Escort head.

The upper exhaust valve (right) is the same size as all the Escort CVH engines since 1981 until they downsized them in 1991. Why is anyone's guess.

To install larger valves the old pressed in valve seats must be removed and new larger seats machined into the head. The stems are also different in length and the keeper grooves are positioned higher. The valve reliefs in the pistons may need to be opened up a bit too.

Ford Escort 1.9L CVH

This is an old 1985-1/2 1.9L Escort engine. It made about 170 horsepower and ran in the mid 14 second range at 93 mph with slicks on the car. It ran about a full second and 2 mph slower with street tires since they would not hook.

It had a header, large hydraulic cam, Holley 500cfm 2 bbl. carburetor and much porting in the head and intake manifold. The engine was shifted at 6500 rpm and would rev past 7000.

This engine was very reliable and delivered over 49mpg on the highway at 60mph. With much abuse, the only things that actually broke on the car were 2 motor mounts.

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