The Ford CVH engine is a straight-four automobile engine produced by the Ford Motor Company. The engine's name is an acronym for either Compound Valve-angle Hemispherical or Canted Valve Hemispherical, where "Hemispherical" describes the shape of the combustion chamber. The CVH was introduced in 1980 in the third generation European Escort and in 1981 in the first generation North American Escort.

The CVH was produced in capacities from 1.1 to 2.0 L, with the smallest version offered exclusively in continental Europe, and the largest only in North America. Engines for North America were built in Ford's Dearborn Engine plant, while engines for Europe and the UK were built in Ford's then-new Bridgend Engine plant in Wales.

The engine was conceived of in 1974, and was a key part of Ford's "Erika" world car programme which produced both the third-generation European Escort and the 1981 North American car of the same name. Although the European and North American Escorts ended up being substantially different from each other in execution, the CVH engine was the one major common part shared between them. The CVH largely replaced the overhead valve Kent ("Crossflow") engine in Ford of Europe's portfolio, although the 'short block' Valencia version of the Kent remained in production for many decades (actually outliving the CVH by two years) - positioned below the CVH as an entry level engine in the smallest capacity Fiesta and Escort models.

The CVH is a cam-in-head design, with a single camshaft mounted low in the cylinder head operating two valves per cylinder via rocker arms. As indicated by the name, the valves in early examples are mounted at a compound angle in order to allow for a hemispherical combustion chamber, but without the need for dual camshafts (or an elaborate rocker system) which a "hemi" engine normally requires. The later "lean burn" versions of the engine launched in 1986 had reshaped combustion chambers to improve swirl, and were strictly speaking no longer hemi-headed at all. The CVH features hydraulic valve lifters, a first for a European Ford engine. In North America the engine was sold under different names, being called the "1.9L SEFI" from 1991 to 1996 in that market's Ford Escort, the "Split Port Induction 2000" or SPI2000 from 1997 to 2002, while from 2000 to 2004 it was simply the "Split Port" when offered in the Ford Focus.

The 1.1 L CVH had the shortest production life of the different variants. Bore × stroke are 74 mm × 65 mm (2.9 in × 2.6 in), and displacement is 1,117 cc (68.2 cu in). It debuted in the 1980 Escort MkIII for Continental Europe only, where it was offered as an alternative to the 1.1 L Valencia overhead valve (OHV) engine, which was the only 1.1 L engine offered in UK market Escorts. The 1.1 L CVH offered negligible improvements in economy or performance over the older Valencia unit, which was simpler and cheaper to manufacture, and hence was dropped in 1982.

Applications

The 1.3 L CVH was introduced in the 1980 European Escort and used in the Orion and Fiesta from 1983 to 1986. Bore and stroke are 80 mm × 64.5 mm (3.15 in × 2.54 in), for a displacement of 1,296 cc (79.1 cu in). The 1.3 L was to be offered in the North American Escort, but testing found it to be unacceptably underpowered while Ford was unable to make it meet emissions requirements. US production plans were scrapped just months before full-scale production was scheduled to start.

For the facelifted fourth generation European Escort of 1986, this CVH was replaced by a 1.3 L Valencia engine in entry-level models, while higher trim level models used the 1.4 L CVH described below.