2.6 g54b head or head gasket ?'s

[87junker]

Looking for some help/ suggestions on where to start on diagnosing what I've got going on. I've been having trouble keeping my engine cool. New radiator, water pump, fan clutch, electric fan. Still gets hot pulling a hill. The last time I had it out I had some white smoke. Smelled very rich of fuel and I'm losing coolant.

I'm guessing head or head gasket is my problem. It builds heat and keeps it for a while if it gets to the point of being too hot. If I do quick trips it stays "cool" and starts and runs fine. If it gets to the point of being too hot it becomes hard to start back and loses performance.

As far as I know it's a jet valve head. I've seen the elimination kits and non jet valve heads. Really the main question is rebuild with non jet valve head? And where to find reliable parts.

[geezer101]

White smoke usually means coolant is making it's way into the combustion chamber(s). Pull the spark plugs and check which one looks unnaturally clean and it'll give you a hint on where the core issue is located. This would definitely explain the white smoke and coolant loss, the subsequent loss of power and overheating. Also check your thermostat. If it's seized up it will prevent adequate coolant flow and won't give the engine enough of a chance to direct coolant to the radiator for the cooling cycle to be effective. If you need a new head, get a non-jet valve if possible. Disabling or deleting the jet valves is a band aid fix IMO.

*Added thought - consider using an electric thermo fan to replace the water pump driven clutch fan. Way more effective when it comes to engine cooling.

[Giovanni89]

I had a similar situation with my 2.6 I drove it about 10k miles that way. It would only start to boil in heavy stop and go traffic, or continued high speed driving. Ended up being a small crack in between the intake and exhaust valve seats on cylinder 2 or 3. I bought my non jet valve cylinder head from Randy at Engine Machine Service in Ohio. He's an engine machine shop that sells some Starion parts online. I was very happy with his customer service.
One note, I bought a bare head and assembled it myself. My original camshaft had some scoring, so I replaced it. I found an old stock Melin camshaft on E-bay with the standard size bearings. Most any camshaft I could find had oversize bearings, so if you have to replace your camshaft, you may have to get the camshaft journals line bored to fit the new cam.

[Dr.G]

Did you ever figure out your issue and did you fix it? I found out today my head is cracked and I'm very curious what you did? New head?