now to answer your question, they are there to plug the crosser over heat riser for the carb, like a modern heat riser they cause the carb to warm up faster and run better, the cross over is usually plugged any way with carbon and dont work, any way a flat head head doesnt need any more heat at the carb, it gets hot enough with out that cross over passage, with the passage open it tends to cause the carb to get so hot the gas is boiled out of carb and flooding the engine, one cause of hard hot engine restarting