from my experience(friends owning rigs with the 2.6), it's a god awful engine. likes to blow head gaskets, and has an oil pump run off a chain driven by a balance shaft
i'd drop a small block in there, or even a ford v6 if you have one handy. the 2.9 is EFI and a pretty decent engine, as long as you dump the stock cylinder heads that like to crack and buy a set of world iron replacement castings.
