Yikes, I'm about due for a fluid change. I can qualify all the miles I've put on my car as racing use, can't I?

How's the rest of the swap coming? I'm excited to see the finished product.

As for the ECU flash, why on earth aren't you just swapping to an ME7.1.1 ECU and harness? Methinks the headaches you'll encounter with tuning (contrary to what ANY vendor or tuner will tell you) will far outweigh the slight inconvenience and cost of swapping to the new version. Then, the coding is essentially free, and you get a free tune and more horsepower when you swap top end parts.