The heat riser on my engine is not connected to anything. What direction to I turn it to have it block exhaust gasses from reaching the bottom of my intake manifold. Assuming I am looking at it from the front of the car. Do I turn it counter clockwise or clockwise. Also if I let my car warm up before driving anyway will this cause me problems to leave it like this?

What do you mean by "not connected to anything"?
The answer to your question is counterclockwise, but why do you want to stop heating your intake manifold? The car won't blow up or anything if you disable the manifold heat, but it'll worsen your driveability, lower your fuel economy, and make your oil get dirtier faster, in exchange for no benefit.

More info here.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.

For the "not connected to anything" part of my post I mean there is just a shaft with a spring comming out of my manifold. The spring doesn't even touch the near by peg on the manifold. It does not move on its own. I have been driving it with it turned counter clockwise but I have started to experience some problems with it as soon as the weather started to get below 18c outside. This is just one of the many problems I suspect are contributing to this.

Ah, okeh, it's not that you want to disable the valve, it's the opposite. Solution there is going to be to fix the valve. If it can't be freed up and made to work correctly with a good penetrant like P'Blaster or Kroil, and/or it's missing parts, then it'll be time to look into a carefully-chosen and -installed new exhaust manifold assembly.

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一期一会
Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.