Air induction plug

[Pascal]

I have noticed that on some engines there is a air induction plug with a stick and on some the stick is missing.
Is there a reason for having the stick on the plug?
Do these differences started at the factory and if so would it be possible to determine from which vin number?

Pascal

[Domi]

Mine was probably lost and replaced by a screw.
In any case, you must have something on that hole.

[Bitsyncmaster]

It's an after market thing. All the engines came with that hole permanently plugged. It was an EPA rule that the owner could not make fuel mixture adjustments. It was done on carberated cars also with a nylon cap.

[Pascal]

Thank you guys. Another mystery solved.

Pascal

[Nicholas R]

If your mixture has never been changed, then your mixture unit will still have a steel plug pressed into the hole. If your mixture has been changed, the plug has been removed. Some people try to drill out the plug but this is unwise. The plug is steel; the housing is aluminum. One slip of the drill, and all that force you were using to try to drill through a .25" thick steel plug goes into drilling into the top of your mixture unit. The manual tells you how to remove the plug.

The cleanest way to remove the plug is to split the mixture unit housing in half and pop the plug out from the bottom. The manual tells you to use a u-shaped tool with a handle to go past the sensor plate from the top to get at the plug. Cliff Schmucker and I once tried for over an hour to do this to a car in the hopes of getting the plug out without removing the mixture unit from the engine. We were not successful. Perhaps with the exact, or a more precise tool, it would be possible; but the tool we made did not work. We just pulled and split the housing, popped the plug out, and put it back together.

[NightFlyer]

If your mixture has never been changed, then your mixture unit will still have a steel plug pressed into the hole. If your mixture has been changed, the plug has been removed. Some people try to drill out the plug but this is unwise. The plug is steel; the housing is aluminum. One slip of the drill, and all that force you were using to try to drill through a .25" thick steel plug goes into drilling into the top of your mixture unit. The manual tells you how to remove the plug.

The cleanest way to remove the plug is to split the mixture unit housing in half and pop the plug out from the bottom. The manual tells you to use a u-shaped tool with a handle to go past the sensor plate from the top to get at the plug. Cliff Schmucker and I once tried for over an hour to do this to a car in the hopes of getting the plug out without removing the mixture unit from the engine. We were not successful. Perhaps with the exact, or a more precise tool, it would be possible; but the tool we made did not work. We just pulled and split the housing, popped the plug out, and put it back together.

http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?8362-Removing-the-anti-tamper-plug-covering-the-mixture-adjustment-screw

I drilled through the cap and used a sheet metal screw threaded into the plug to pull it out, as was recommended to me by Dave S, and as described in the above 'how to.'

Worked like a charm and took all of five minutes (most of which was spent finding the proper sized drill bit and chucking it into my drill).

[Nicholas R]

Glad you were successful! If you've got a steady hand, it certainly sounds like a good plan. I've unfortunately seen multiple mixture units with chunks mission from people with less steady hands slipping with the drill.

[jawn101]

Glad you were successful! If you've got a steady hand, it certainly sounds like a good plan. I've unfortunately seen multiple mixture units with chunks mission from people with less steady hands slipping with the drill.

Like mine... the hole is teardrop shaped from whichever PO drilled it out. Had a hell of a time finding a plug that would fit it, since the ones DMCH sells would just fall over and get lost in the valley or on the crossover pipe.