mcclureag

I am returning to Subaru's after more than 10 years away, not sure why it's been so long!
I have bought a UK 2004 WRX with a knackered engine which I am about to rebuild and once done I want to learn how to remap the ecu (I am a complete novice at mapping). I have read quite a few post about mapping and also the newbietuningguide to get an idea about which items I need to purchase and software to use. I am looking at using the RomRaider / ECU flash software with a Taxctrix cable.
I have 20 plus years experience in IT, specialising in database development and reporting. I intending on developing a database to store all the logs, map settings and include the logic for any calculations (Airboys spreadsheet ect..). The idea being that I can then track the changes made to the maps and the impact it has on the key metrics, this data could then be displayed in excel graphs. For anyone who doesn't have experience of databases, the main advantages are that I can store a huge amounts of log data (Gigabytes) and still get fast access to it and apply complex calculations simply and quickly (Formulas in excel become very complex and unmanageable very quickly).

So I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this, and if so did it produce useful results e.g speeding up process by reducing the number of cycles of changes made to the maps to get to the required result?

Also as I will have the engine out and will be replacing the complete exhaust including headers, are there any modifications to aid tuning that I should make whilst it's easier to work on (I am thinking particularly on the exhaust side of things)? Is there an ideal position for the wideband o2 sensor even if it means modifying the new exhaust?

Thanks

Andy