Like a lot of these cars in the North mine came to me with the heat exchanging shroud rusted out. The pipes inside are fine and I don't need heat right away (ever?) so can I hook the exhaust back up without the heat exchanging shroud? Or does it provide some shielding for cables/tranny etc. from exhaust heat?

I can't see it being a problem. A lot of guys run headers on here, and they have no shroud for heat. Give it a try.

Sure...I had naked HEs from a Bus that I used on the T4 when it was in the 356.....look strange, but who cares?

The exhaust pipes, exposed to the air instead of being inside a can, will run cooler so I doubt that you would have any problem with cabling.

I would plug off the outlets to the heater system on the impeller blower housing (the little aluminum flappy things).