Engine project, need some input...

[rexav8r]

I'm tackling a few projects this time around...

I'll post some pics if anyone thinks they'd help, maybe they would... It's a 1970 'E'.

Here's what was going on...

(1) The (original Leistritz) muffler was finally developing small holes near the flanges that bolt up to the heat exchangers, so time for a new muffler.

(2) The original heat exchangers have built up so much gunk (and now oil residue) that once up to temp, they (esp. the right side) smoke pretty bad. At a minimum they need to be cleaned, but considering their wear condition, I'm going to replace them with SSI units.

(3) I've developed several leaks, the worst (I believe) is the main seal, requiring an engine/tranny drop & separation.

I pulled the heat exchangers and muffler this morning.

Here are some of my questions:
Which muffler ?? Probably Dansk, but should I go Sport (2-in/2-out) or Stock (2-in/1-out) ? I'm leaning toward Sport, but does the 2.2 liter engine build enough back-pressure for low-end torque ?? I read a bunch of threads a while back about it, -anyone have experience with both ??

I still have the original (one-piece) oil return tubes. While they don't "appear" to be leaking (at least not bad), should I replace them with collapseable tubes ? There are "mystery" oil leaks under there somewhere...

Looking up in the exhaust ports where the exchangers were removed, I see quite a bit of carbon build-up. Should I do something to clean it up a bit, or not risk messing something up in there..?

I was going to drop the eng/tranny once I pulled the exchangers to work on the main seal, but looking at it, the whole weight of the engine would be resting on the lower valve covers (at an angle). I didn't really want to jack it on the sump plate, because of crushing the gaskets there. Should I just wait until I install the new SSI heat exchangers ? I didn't want to bang/scrape them up either.