If you're missing the dowel pin, which goes under the center cam cover your VTEC will not turn on. If the machine shop lost it, you'll have to get a new one as well as the oring that goes around it. What the dowel and O ring do is hold oil pressure for vtec. Obviously if you have neither, you're not gonna get VTEC cuz there's no oil pressure. Even if you had the dowel and no oring you wouldn't get vtec. Look in your FSM for the part numbers.