1) I have no heat exchangers. Can the two ports that normally hook to the heat exchangers be capped off? Or are they part of the hot air exit flow?

2) I have no thermostat nor all the related flapper parts. Long ago - I thought I verified the oil cooler flap was in place and down - but now I'm not sure - is there a way to see/feel the flapper without dropping the engine?

3) Missing: Intake snorkel near cyl #1 - I'm assuming this is part of the engine cooling system? If so, seems unbalanced. What is it for?

Post some pictures of your engine and folks will let you know what is missing.

All these parts help your engine warm up quickly (reducing wear) and then keep it at the right temperature.

Bruce Stone (bdstone) can hook you up with any parts you need.

John

You absolutely MUST have the flaps in place and set in the open position. The flap on the 3/4 side especially since this flap actually directs and forces cooling air through the cooler. If it's not there, you will have insufficient flow through your oil cooler.

1...... Cap off the heater hose ports, since you have no exchangers there is no need to cool them with the hoses, or other related tin. cap off the ports to prevent enterance of hot air into the engine bay,

2. you need a thermostat and all flapper parts, would you run a chevy, toyota, or ford with no thermostat installed? get all these important parts installed. Post a wanted ad if you dont have them. I dont know if you can see the flap or not, with the tin installed, but you CAN remove the top tin and gain access WITH OUT removal of the engine. you do have to pull the intake runners off each head, and possibly the distributor and a few other things and then the upper tin can be removed with engine in place.

3.... I assume this is the warm up air snorkle, used on later cars to direct preheaed intake air to the air cleaner when temperature is cold. this aided warm up and reduced cold running pollution You can run without this, without the heat exchanger parts installed, you cant hook up the hot air source anyhow.

1 - leave them open or cap them. You won't notice a difference.
2 - You don't need the thermostat. It's BETTER if you can run one. But you don't need one in order to safely operate the engine.
3 - It is the warm air port, but it's for early engines (not late) and it gets warm air off the heads, not the heat exchangers. Again, for a stock engine, stock components/setup is best, but you don't need this in place for safe operation of the engine.

Thanks to all.

1) heat exhanger ports on the fan shroud are now capped off.

2) Still trying to verify if the thermostat flapper on the 3/4 side is in place or not. Lots of air is blowing through the oil cooler as is. Restoring the thermostat system is now on my to-do list.

3) I guess I'll cap off the hole in the cooling tin left by the missing snorkel piece.

i agree with most of the replies but...
its not black and white
how hard you push the engine, how hard the climate pushes thermal limits will determine how complete and how perfectly sealed up everything must be.
the warm air guides under the cylinders (engine belly) create a low presure zone to maximize peak flow of cooling air and protect your clutch cable from melting

oil cooler flap is MANDATORY
capping off teh fan shroud supply to the heater exchangers is 10 shades of grey i dont feel like typing about