[ACK]

Yup, that's the heat riser to help warm up the engine faster on cold days. Yes, you can ignore it, it's weighted in a way so that when the springs breaks, it doesn't cause bad things to happen.

Looks like your spring probably just needs the bend to hook onto the post in the picture. Warning, the post might be rusted to the point that it breaks off sooner or later. If that does happen, you can carefully drill and tap to install a new one of your own making. If you do get a new spring, the older jeeps used the same bi-metal spring but they usually cost about half as much as the Chevy version. Should you go the Jeep route, you'll have to trim it and bend a small tab to, again, hook onto that small post.