'89 escort help

a friend of mine has some issues and i know nothing about Fords, so here it is:

"I am looking into buying an Escort that i owned in high school. I would like to make it relatively fast, but am mostly buying it toy with and learn off of. This way i don't try to do something to my daily driver and hurt it. If anyone has any tips on maybe a good engine i could switch out, or ways to make an approximatly 110 hp engine worth anything, let me know. If i could find an engine and trany, i could skip replacing the flywheel, clutch, and throwout bearing(which is what it needs done now). any takers?"

thanks for any help you have.