Valve seat drop: The engine head is aluminum, but the valves have to close on something much harder. When this car was made there was a fairly new technology of 'sintered' valve seats. This involved using a metallic powder that was fused by heat and pressure into a solid valve seat, which were then pressed into the head. Either due to time or heating cycles, the seats could fracture into pieces and the pieces come out (on an intake stroke) and fall into the cylinder - and get smashed between the under side of the combustion chamber and the top of the piston. This distorts one or more pistons and ruins them. It doesnt happen very often, and escorts arent the only engines having the same kind of valve seat inserts. I dont know why it happens to a few engines, but not all. I bought two LX escorts, a 91LX and a 94LX which had suffered the valve seat drop failure, and rebuilt them. The work was not difficult, and could be done by a decent hobbyist - which is what i am, never having been employed as a mechanic. It involved getting an engine head that had been rebuilt having new valve seats installed, replacing the damaged piston (or pistons) and putting it back together (after cleaning metal chunks out of the intake manifold) with other new stuff, like piston rings, main-seals, and bearings on the crankshaft. I own five 2nd gen LX escorts, and the other three have never had the problem, one of them having 290,000 miles on it.
Due more to its age then the miles on it, I would want to replace the timing belt and tensioner, and possibly the radiator and its electric fan, and the radiator hoses. if you do you own work these are very economical cars, as the parts are mostly not too pricey. I got the Ford Escort Service Manual and the Electrical and Vacuum Trouble shooting Manual, both from ebay. For the EVTM you need to get the version for your year of car, as they did change from year to year.
Does yours have an EGR system? Not all of them did, except for the California version of the emissions. The EGR valve would be visible on the back side of the intake manifold, close to the throttle body.
I get most of my repair parts online, from www(dot)rockauto(dot)com.
True that the bumpers are fragile; really only for looks. Dont even put a knee on them or lean on them with an arm! Replacements are very hard to find now, even though the bumpers from any 91-through 96 escort will fit right on.
And welcome to the forums! The wife and I have been to Spokane, though we live 2200 miles south-southeast from it.
