Intake (heat shield) and metal gaskets?

Not sure about that so I don’t know. That area where the exhaust crosses over gets extremely hot. I mean real hot.

Any oil that hits it when it’s hot Coke’s off.

If you are even half careful you should be able to get them out. 99% of the time it’s pretty easy.

I have had a couple of times where I broke one off or the hole was so blown out no amount of peening would tighten up the hole and I would find another spot on the casting that would take a rivet and drill it there and put the rivet in.

You can get those rivets from Goodson IIRC or similar sources.

I think you’ll do just fine getting them out.
If I block the crossovers and use an electric choke would I need the pan still?

edit; but I'm going to try and get those rivets out as you guys mentioned above we'll see how it goes.