Weird piece of plastic, grommett?, found in heater pipe

So check this out.

I was changing the o-rings on my inlet/outlet heater hose pipes, and upon removing the pipe that attaches to the LIM, I looked into the end (the end with the o-ring) and there was this grommett looking thing wedged in there perpendicular to the bore of the pipe.

If one looks at the parts diagram, there is not a part like this in the vicinity.  So I can only assume this somehow got into the cooling system, circulated around, and lodged itself in the orifice of this pipe where it joins the LIM.

It was blocking most of the orifice of the pipe, so I'm sure my heater circulation suffered.  It will be interesting to see how quickly the heater heats now   

The "grommett" was just about to fall apart after being in there so long...  it also is now oblong from being jammed in there sideways.  Weird. Anyone recognize this thing, and where it might have come from (in case it needs to be replaced!)?

what size is it, and how thick? do you think the numbers molded into it mean anything?

I'd have to go measure it, but it is about a 1/4 inch thick, probably about 1/2 inch diameter.

I'm just about certain it was originally round and got jammed in the pipe, where it got deformed into an oval over time and heat exposure.

BTW, here is a diagram of the heater inlet/outlet pipes I am talking about.  The "grommett" was jammed in the o-ring end of part # 8

my wild guess is a piece of flash from in the plastic coolant elbow (by the LIM), and that it's been there since the car's original manufacture.

This is a Series I, I don't have any plastic coolant elbows   

Plus this piece is clearly "rubber", just like a washer or faucet valve seat. It is thick and squishy.

I agree it was probably in there since "day 1" or soon after. I just wonder what it came from   

I pulled out something similar from the same tube a few years back. Mine was brittle plastic and fit into the pipe. I was told it was to reduce/meter flow to the heater. I would imagine that is what your piece is for but they likely changed the design on the series 2+ motors.
Should be a post on this in the S2 section as well.
-Matt

On the seriesII, there's a check valve built into one of the metal heater pipes that connect to the tensioner body and they often kinda break down over time and you end up with pieces of plastic crumbling as soon as you touch it. I am not intimately familiar with its construction but it's mostly plastic and has a spring and I could see it having a rubber seal or something like that   

It fit so "well" (sorta, even sideways) I wondered if it could have been some sort of flow limiter as I couldn't imagine how it got through the cooling system and stuck in there. But stranger things have happened.
 
Anyway, it's not shown on the exploded parts diagram so I dunno.
 
For those with the check valve in the Series II that has since disintegrated, was there any downside to the flow no longer being metered into the heater core?
 
Depending on how the water moves through that part of the system in a Series I, it could cause the car to run a little cooler, or even warmer.  Hard to say.
 
So far the car is running just a tad cooler than when I had the factory 195F thermostat, so it seems fine.
 
I guess the only way to find out for sure is to pull the same pipe from another 95 in a wrecking yard and see if this "grommett" is in there.

Al