Well, there was a little engine noise coming from my escort for the past several months. I have put many miles on this thing since it has started, including one trip to denver and back. Well 2 nights ago it got real noisy, I figured from when it started that it was simply a rod bearing. I never did have any sort of power loss or throttle response problems, and up to the real noisy point I was wanting to put this off until spring. Well, I tore the engine apart today and there sat a three piece crank, it broke at the first counterweight behind the timing belt and then again at the second counterweight. This says something about ford products to me. I torture my stuff and any other brand would have left me walking with two breaks in a crankshaft. Just slightly amazed. Cody