smoking firewall plug

[89foxtrot]

My '89 coupe has a rubber plug (or gasket) on the passenger side of the firewall. It is located behind (and above) the header and appears that it may have held a tube at some point in time. It serves no purpose now and everytime the heads heat up is starts to melt the rubber and smoke up the engine bay. I don't even notice the smoke until I get caught at a light and then it looks like the car is on fire. Not cool. Even after the car has been parked for a few days this rubber plug is a gooey mess. Does anyone have any thoughts on how to get the rubber plug out and then what to fill the hole in with? What was the original purpose of this plug?

 

[mach_71]

i believe that is the drain for the ac evaporator, all i know about it is it drips antifreeze when your heater core leaks

 

[BlueThunder1988]

I had to replace mine when the old one deteriorated and leaked water into the interior. I'm still using my A/C so I fab'd a couple of overlapping metal plates and used lots of black RTV to create a new gasket. They aren't available from Ford anymore.