Eric,
I recently bought a used Alabama head for the 2.6L I4. While the casting looks good, everything attached to it is not the best quality. It was also put together very poorly. The valve spring height was not within specs and the retainers hit ALL the valve guide seals, breaking them. The rear cam plug was also installed dry and coming off. This head had less than 5k miles, and was very clean except for the burnt oil deposits past the exhaust valves.
So it will need a valve job to make sure the valve seats are not high and the distance between the spring retainer and the guide seal is more than the max lift.
Maybe this is not common, but something to consider.