MK4 ESCORT CHT
It’s fascinating to see something so familiar that’s at the same time so different. We’re looking at a Mk4 Escort here, we know this, we grew up with them and that oh-so-recognisable silhouette is firmly imprinted in our brains. And yet, when we look under the bonnet, we don’t see a CVH. We see a CHT. And just what the hell is that?
Well, it all comes down to evolution. European manufacturers have often speared off on unexpected tangents when they enter the Brazilian market (just look at all the mad stuff built by ), and when it came to the Mk3/4 Escort, it made the most sense domestically-speaking to kit them out with the CHT engine. This has nothing in common with the CVH aside from some approximately similar(ish) displacements; in fact, it’s derived from Renault’s Cléon-Fonte engine, had bought the rights to back when they took over production of locally-built Willys Jeeps back in the 1960s. But wait, it gets weirder. In Brazil, a lot of cars are powered by ethanol, which is produced from sugar cane – a crop that grows enthusiastically in South America – and felt that the CHT would be far more suitable to convert to ethanol than the CVH ever could be. And so, working with Ford of Europe and also with Renault, they took this decades-old motor and made it work on alcohol for the front-wheel-drive Escort. A new cylinder head was required for this to accommodate the swirling intake charge, and the result was the Compound High Turbulence head – hence the CHT nomenclature. With a reputation for being smooth, simple and tough, it became a stalwart of everyday Brazilian transport.
