The Escort was Ford's answer to the import-car onslaught by the likes of Honda, Toyota and Nissan, who were all delivering fuel-efficient and peppy compact cars to the U.S. The Escort lived a production run that spanned from 1981 through 2003 -- three years after its replacement, the Focus debuted. Replacing the cylinder head on the 1995 Escort's 1.9-liter engine requires a very specific bolt-tightening procedure.
Starting from the rearmost, passenger-side cylinder head bolt and moving clockwise around the cylinder head,number the bolts from 1 to 10. The bolt-tightening sequence is 9-3-1-5-7-10-4-2-6-8. When tightening the cylinder head bolts, apply a thin coat of new engine oil to the bolts, then tighten them to 44 foot-pounds in the above sequence. Loosen the bolts by two turns each, then retighten them to 44 foot-pounds in the above sequence. Apply the final torque to the cylinder head bolts, by tightening each bolt an extra 90 degrees in the above sequence.
