When i had my first car - a 1990 Fiesta 1.1 RS Turbo replica back in 2005, it had a distributor. Surely as they where both the pushrod engines, surely they should have been the same, ignition wise? Though about 8 months after that car, i had an april 1996 Fiesta RS Turbo replica with a coil packed single point injected 1.1 hcs engine. Just found it strange your escort had a coil pack in 1989 when my fiesta didnt in 1990.

Or maybe the previous owner, had a julian godfrey rallycross spec hcs in it, because it was on ebay cheap and in the money...