I have a '73 2056 engine that I had originally intended to put in my project car, but that effort is going to take some time, so my current plan is to swap the 1.7L out of my daily driver with this engine. It came with set of used (but good) SSI heat exchangers. I want to have my feces together as much as possible before doing the engine swap, and having never done the HE's before any advice is welcome. I've tried to do my homework, and here's what I think I've found (what am I missing or assuming incorrectly):

1. I don't have an engine stand. Sounds like it's best to get the engine/tranny in car and then install the HE's.

2. I need to make sure the tops of the HE's are uniform and file them with large file as needed (putting a large piece of wood across them they appear to be uniform, but I don't know what I may be missing).

3. Need install hardware, including copper rings, copper lock nuts, washers, etc. AA sells a "kit" here that I'm tempted to buy even though it doesn't look like such a great deal

4. Anneal (or not) the copper rings (sounds like there's two schools of thought on this).

5. Use anti-seize compound

6. Install and tighten to 18 Ft-Lbs and recheck and tighten (as needed) a few days later after driving.

Any thoughts on any of these steps?

I'm trying to go in one fell swoop from a 1.7L with tail-shift to a 2056/side-shift/Triad Exhaust. If I do this correctly it should drive (and sound) quite different....

Thanks for the help!

Great job with the research
McMark advises to use the small, 1/4" socket wrench so that the thin, smaller 13mm can be used. It's a tight fit on some of those nuts. I bought a wobble extension for my 3/8" socket wrench, and it is an awesome helper in lots of situations, including the tough to reach HE nuts.

The HE install was the task the sent me over the edge to buy my pricy Snap-On torque wrench and the wobble extension

Good advice, thanks Chris! It's good to have the tool available that'll keep you from going insane before you start the job. That's now on my shopping list.

18 ft-lbs is too much. You'll ruin the mounts on the SSI's.
14 ft-lbs is appropriate, but still may be too much for the thin SS material.

Ahhh...ok. Thanks, Chris. I had bad info on that then. That could have been a small disaster.

Inspect the mounting ears for weld cracks. 'Paint' the top edges of the he piping with a black sharpie. Lightly pass the bastard file over both pipe edges on one he he at the same time. After the first pass see how much of the black edge is left and proceed with a light touch.

Here is another tip from McMark that helped me get rid of a bad exhaust leak.

LOOSELY mount both exchangers to the heads and then loosely mount your muffler to make sure that everything aligns properly. When you tighten the nuts on the studs, use a flashlight to make sure that you can see copper all the way around each pipe. If not, the pipe can ride on the ridge of the head around the copper gasket. This WILL cause a leak if the pipes are not solidly on the copper.

Thanks for the help, fellas. I took Kevin's tip about painting with a sharpie and carefully filing. One HE didn't take too long. The other took a good 20 minutes of careful filing, and it's still not perfect. Better, but not perfect.

Click to view attachment
Biggest file I have...
Click to view attachment
Close to done...
Click to view attachment

I'll get the hardware be ready when I have the rest of the pieces. Thanks again!

Also DONT tighten any nuts all the way down right off the bat. These things are SUPER finicky. Tighten each nut a little at a time and pay more attention to the nuts which are close to the valve cover. Those are the ones that should seat first. Another tip is to grab the whole heat exchanger and rattle/wiggle it around between rounds of tightening. This will help the pipes seat flat. Finally, use the correct copper played flange nuts. They are self locking and use a 12mm socket instead of the 13 which gives much more breathing room for the socket.

Seems like a lot of drama for exhaust, but it's all absolutely necessary. Thanks a ton VW for such a bull-s*** exhaust setup.

Sweet. Finicky Exhaust + Clueless Newbie = "what could possibly go wrong???" At least I now know I need to go into this carefully.

Thanks for the advice, Mark. I'll post updates once I start swapping everything out.

Use grease to hold the copper seals to the heads for install.
Use a flat washer on each stud to spread the load of the eight nuts.
If there is leakage at the heads after taking all above precautions disconnect one spark plug wire at a time (with engine running) to locate the offending cylinder.
If you have any cardiac issues have your significant other pull each wire off.

+1 on the annealing.

A little advice from someone who has BTDT. Don't work on your exhaust pipes on the wife's nice white carpet. You might live to regret it.