The latest...
So it seems like I've been going back and forth and watching countless hours of YouTube for months now but I guess it's only been a couple weeks. I ended up filing down the spade connectors on the wire ends to slip them into the plug on the new dist. After all is said and done I would've been better off sticking with my original dist, locking out the mech adv and buying an adjustable piece for the vac adv. I had a few issues with the instructions because my configuration didn't exactly match what everyone else had so I had to kind of guess on some of it as I went along. Sometimes wrong and I had to back up and start again. Finally got everything installed locked down and wired up right and the Sniper is now controlling my timing. I still have to download the software to my computer so I can make some fine tuning adjustments to the timing curve and the fuel delivery but it seems to be running well( in the garage anyway). I'll get her out this weekend and run around the neighborhood for awhile and let things settle in again and we'll see if it's a happy thing or not.

I did spend quite a few hours trying to use this big body HEI mostly because they said it couldn't be done and partially because I didn't want to spend the $400-$500 on the easy setup. Depending on how much you value your time at would depend on which way to go if you were to do this same sort of thing.