Any way to tell if car has a plastic or metal.sprague?

I just picked up a 16′ model xp1k. One of the first things I was planning on getting done was upgrading the front diff’s Sprague carrier.

Well, the parts guy at the dealer said they changed back to the metal one pretty early on in their productions.

But he could not find a way to tell with out tearing into it ?? Would anyone on here in the know, be able to tell by the vin # or build date ?

Thanks in advance