Ok so I had a pretty steady drip from the rear of the oil pan on my 82' SX/4. So I removed the engine to replace the oil pan gasket and discovered that the previous owner had JB Welded the oil pan on, without any gasket at all. After many hours of tapping, lifting, grinding and sanding I was able to replace the gasket and the engine. Once i started the car up I then had a steady trickle of oil out of the rear of the oil pan.
I have now replmoved the engine again, flipped it over and removed the oil pan to try it again.
Though the process of cleaning the surface for the new gasket I found this seemly out of place random peice of plastic on the fly wheel end of the engine. I can not trust the previous owner enough to simply accept that this is supposed to be there and I do not want to replace everything only to discover it in fact does not belong and have to take the engine out for a third time.
If it is supposed to be there should it be replaced? What is it?