What is this?
 

What on earth is this thing, and can anyone think of a reason the previous owner would have buried it under a ton of jb weld?
Attachment 404347

Hint: It's the circled part.

Thanks,
~Devon

Is that the rear Iron? There is a coolant passage there that I believe goes to the accelerated warmup or something on the intake manifold, mine is blocked off with a bit of tubing and a bolt in the end, he must have gotten creative.

Front iron, sorry. Probably should have mentioned that. It's closer to the front side, however. It looks to be solid, but looking at the rotor side of the iron, there's a passage (coolant?) that runs under it, the best I can think is that it was leaking.