The letters CHT denote a particular type of 4-cylinder internal combustion engine produced by the Ford Motor Company in Brazil during the 1980s. It is a completely different engine from the CVH engine and must not be mistaken with it.

The CHT (Compound High Turbulence) engine was introduced by Ford in 1984 in the mk3 version of the Ford Escort, the first released in Brazil. It was later used in the Ford Del Rey, the Ford Verona as well as the VW Gol.

The engine itself is an evolution of the very efficient Renault Ventoux engine, which Ford got as a legacy for buying the brazilian Willys/Renault plant in late 60's, as happened with the Ford Corcel. It has 8v OHV, with rotating valves.

It was a very robust, economic and had a very good performance. Unfortunately, its performance never got good reviews of the specialized press, since it was aways mounted with a very long gearbox, requiring more gearshifts than the press-beloved competitors .

It was also one of the (if not THE one) engines that had the better adaptation for a alcohol version, which generated at least 20% more power than its petrol model, with less than 8% increase on the fuel consumption. It had no problems at all for cold starts and high fuel comsuption like the General Motors Company cars had at that time.

Three models were available:

• 1.6 petrol (65 hp)
• 1.6 alcohol (74 hp)
• 1.6 XR alcohol (83hp)

In 1987, with the release of the mk4 version of the Ford Escort, this engine got some revisions, resulting in the CHT E-Max (max economy) version. All the models got a 4,4cv increase and better torque.

In 1990, a smaller version was released:

• 1.0 petrol (55 hp)

During the Autolatina period (1990-1996) VW used this engine naming it AE-1600 and AE-1000, but it is basically the same engine.

From 1996 to 1999 the CHT got gradually replaced by the newer Zetec 16-valve unit and the very worst Endura-E engine.