I inherited a Carolina Stove wood burning insert from a friend. It was manufactured in 1987. I am planning on installing it in my home but have run into a few problems. It has an 8" flu and I already talked to a certified chimney sweep (best friends uncle) who said it would be ok for draft purposes to downsize to a 6" flu if necessary if I insulated it.

Now for the questions:

My chimney is lined with ceramic and measures approx 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 inner dia and I would need just shy of 20' length I could get a 8" liner but at the damper it looks like I would have to deform the liner pretty bad to get it to go through. I can 1- cut the damper out where the pipe would go through or 2- use a 6" liner.

I also have to get an elbow or possibly a insert boot adapterbecause with the insert in all the way the opening on top of the insert is about 1/2" back from the start of the cemented portion of the fireplace. I would have to angle the piece meeting the top of the insert back about 30 degrees so it could make a straight run to the damper then bend up to go up the chimney.

I am thinking the 6" liner would be the way to go for a few reasons. 1- no deformation to fit through the damper 2- lower cost

I was envisioning a setup where I have a 8" elbow coming out of the insert, then a 8" to 6" reducer that will get me very close to the damper, then hooking up to the 6" liner. I can't seem to find a solution to hook the elbow to the insert. I have a copperfield pro book to look at components but I am still at a loss. Do I use a 8" insert boot adapter? I have no clearance to connect it to the insert from the outside. I will have to reach up through the insert and pull it down. What does that connection look like? There are no screw holes on the insert. How do I get a secure no leak connection? My dad tried to explain that his had some threaded rod and connections inside that he tightened in place. Does that stuff come with the insert boot adapter?

Also as stated earlier I have a 9.5x9.5 chimney opening and I can't find a collar plate with those dimensions. The ceramic sticks out above the chimney about 4-5 inches. Do I cut the ceramic flush for a 13x13 plate. Or do I cut the collar plate with some tin snips and bend the sides over the ceramic and seal with some silicone?

Trust me when I say I read up on this and searched quite a bit on this site and every other site I could find on Google and STILL have these questions. I have left messages with the sweep that I intially talked to but he hasn't gotten back with me. Please help...