I have run with and without ballance shafts.

A good reason to get rid of them during a rebuild is the parts add up in cost. Two shafts, chains ect can be around $350. Less complexity can be good.

Why keep them? Well the motor is smoother (ok duh). When the 2.6 was designed the engineers were able to use a much longer stroke and heavyer rods than a normal 4 cyl engine since they new they could cancle the second order (actualy a secondary effect of a second order vibration) vibration out with the ballance shafts. The 2.6 is built like the old slant six... Long stroke small bore for good low end torque. this is also why it makes a great turbo motor, inherant torque and a turbo to help out after that. But unlike a slant six all fours are inherantly out of ballance...

If you dont have ballance shafts then you must tune the mounting system to keep the vehicle smooth. If I were building a 2.6 for no ballance shafts I would put the rods and pistons on a bit of a diet, this will reduce the forces.

I have driven 2.6 engines with and without shafts... And could be happy either way. I chose to put them in on this motor. As long as you keep oil to them they will be happy and live as long as the rest of the motor.

Plenty of people on the Starion board get rid of them and it does not seem to be a problem. If you get rid of them fresh motor mounts will help isolate the motor from the rest of the vehicle.

I kept mine, no regrets so far,

Kevin