Comboverfish wrote:

> there are died in the wool loyalists out there who can't see that the 1.9 is a POS.

> People who "run these into the ground" live with the burdon of
> replacing/reconditioning the head on a regular basis and just accepting
> unhealthy engine noises, coolant leaks, oil leaks, constant MIL on,
> etc.

A person at work has a 1.8L Mazda Protege with slightly under 300,000
miles, no engine work. I don't see any blue smoke or smell
hydrocarbons from it.

My 1.9L has less than 75K. How soon can I expect trouble with it? I
read that Ford had redesigned the block to fix head gasket failures
before the Ford/Mazda Escort was introduced in 1991, so if it still has
head problems, it must have been absolutely awful in the earlier years.
OTOH Ford also managed to cut 3 HP, despite introducing the welded
tubing intake manifold, so maybe I shouldn't expect much.