You are asking some very specific questions that relatively few people really know the decisive answers too. But considering this is a relatively small forum that focuses on moving heavy trucks around I doubt you will find much info here you didn't already know. With the acception of tuning info since you said you know nothing about that. Nelson or farmtruck seems to be the resident expert on that subject. However I would suggest you post this same question over on ls1 tech. They seem to like getting into deep theoretical discussions and there are alot of members over there that have knowledge to the point where I can barely follow what they are talking about. And I have been to auto diesel college and have been turning wrenches for a living since I was 15.