so got it done; parts didnt arrive till 2 pm on saturday. so only got 3 hours on it; basically read the link about the gasket replacement here in the stickies went out and tore it down; the spider is simply plug and play and the original bracket worked fine on the new part for me. started back on it sunday around 1030 am and even after breaking a few things, 2 trips to the parts store, and one to the local pick n pull for lost bolts ( they always seems to fall into crevices in the engine bay you cant get to) i had it put back together and running by 5pm.
i have never worked on a computer controlled vehicle, all my experience comes from pre 1985 rebuilds and such; so it looked way more daunting then it is. it is very time consuming removing all the junk from the engine before ya actually get to what ya need to get at. i didnt label anything... it all only plugs into one spot so you cant mix them up, i did however mark the dizzy; cuz thats, well just common sense.
fired it up and it ran fine first try. no check engine lights or anything. the new spider also cleared up an annoying miss that wouldnt go away. so really was worth it. it idles way smoother now;wasnt bad before but is a noticeable improvement. my butt dyno has however registered no power gains. although i didnt expect any either. all in all not an overly difficult repair just time consuming.