Heat Riser concern

[davepl]

I'm a little worried about my heat riser on my stock 402 because it stays closed mostly at idle.

It's still spring loaded and operates freely. But at hot idle it's still forcing a lot of the heat through the manifold crossover, and most of the exhaust flow comes out the driver's side pipe only.

How normal is is that?

I also have some overheating at idle issues and I wonder if its not aggravating that a little bit.

My question is how important is the heat crossover in the summer time? Could I just wire it open or would I lose driveability during the warmup phase?