Oh I hate those season finale cliff hanger episodes!

sorry! We have a couple warmer days coming up and the car may see the road again for some tuning
The Best 3G Ever
Thank you

that's an over statement but I appreciate the kind words
I've decided to switch back to just the stock auto ecu (no dual ecu setup) and will be tuning it like this for now. There's a few benefits and drawbacks to doing this.
The benefits are the ability to connect to the auto ecu via OBD2 (instead of the manual ecu in the dual ecu setup) to be able to adjust trans tables, no random shudder/random misfire at idle & cruising caused by big maps (very annoying), no alternator charging issues from the dual ecu setup (alternator outputting 13.9V rather than 14.3v), etc.
Really the only drawback is not having big maps for the expanded timing tables. This can be worked around by adjusting the load scaling for the timing table. With big maps I had the load scaling increase every 15% and with the original tables it's every 30%. This means the auto ecu does more extrapolating to determine the timing. An example is if I'm in between two defined load increments (lets say 45%), the ecu will take the timing values at 30% (lets say 18 degrees) and 60% (lets say 16 degrees) for the given rpm and average them (17 degrees). The smaller timing table should be easier to view. I also was able to create a definition file for my auto ecu that has all the big maps tables defined along with dozens of other auto trans, knock, alternator, and fan tables. Lastly I added the 2 byte load, airflow, and rpm values into the rom to read above 159%, 1600hz, and 7900rpms respectively (although I only rev to 7500). I'm really hoping I can make some progress tuning.
Another small update is that I decided to add heated seat elements to my knockoff Bride seats. I currently have the heater core lines capped because of how close the exhaust runs to them and mid 30 degree days are a little chilly. I picked up a set of universal heated seat elements from Amazon that came with enough parts for 2 seats and also have the switches, premade harnesses, and a relay. Each seat took under 30 minutes to complete install. Here's a few pics from the process... my dog decided to give a helping hand!
All back together and testing in my living room while watching tv
Hopefully some more updates will follow. Stay tuned