Good questions Stu, basically just expanded my skills a bit further.
I am an "Automotive Machinist" by trade. Which means engine reconditioner basically. I will say straight up that i am no expert and I have been out of the trade for 12yrs but I certainly have a good understanding of the internal combustion engine.
As for the tuning of the
ECU, I started from scratch. I have spent many hours reading on
http://eectuning.org to understand the parameter descriptions and their functions. So while my wife is watching Masterchef or some c**p like that, I do some reading.
I also downloaded the free trial version of Clint Garrity's Binary Editor from
http://eecanalyzer.net to get a good idea of what all this looks like on the PC.
Keep in mind 90% of the functions don't need touching. Ford spent millions on doing that for us. Its just the basics- fuel, spark, and airflow that most people change. Of course if you add different injectors,
MAF, add a supercharger, change the engine displacement, and things like that, then you will have to do a bit more trial and error and ask more questions on the forums for your individual application.
-Craig