Swirlnflaps.

Good morning...

My 08 a3 170 is leaking a little bit of oil and smoke through area where swirl flap arm is where it connects to the rod.

I took manifold off and sure enough the flaps and rod or cracked and loose.

So I think I have 2 options.

1) I buy a swirl flap removal kit ( can't i just remove the rod and blank off the opening to the actuator arm? As iv seen kits that have more than this in them)

2) buy new manifold off Ebay or something from a bmn engine that has no swirlflaps like the metal version?

What would be best option and if I was to remove or blank off swirlflaps what effect will this have on engine performance and would it flag a mil light or non mil light codes?

Cheers Dave