If you are talking about the plastic around the glowplug connectors, you can plug them in without it, but you will lose some tension on the connection. I did this and found after a month or so, my glowplug controller would short cycle. I found out if I unplugged and plugged back in the glowplug connectors, it was fine again for a few weeks and then it would do it again.
I did find that a aftermarket bullet crimp connector would fit over the end of the glowplug, and changed them all out.
Hopefully you did not bend one of the connecting rods with the water in it. But if you did, it sounds like this truck is just a tool to use for the lift. You can keep running it on 7 cylinders and it will not hurt it. It may have a little skip to it, but it will still move down the road and be useful as a crane.