It's just a piece of thin metal shield that keeps excess oil splashed on to the crankshaft seal. Todays seals made out of far superior quality material than the early days so your engine will not fall apart if it does not have one. Tell your engineer to snap out of it and just put it together without it. I have not used one for ages.

Cheers, Chris.

I made an assumption that it was a Pontiac engine......But, in my research, I find these slinger rings...



are used on Oldsmobile engines.

So, I'm thinking the T/A has a 403 Olds in it.......