Hi sasser,
I know a bit how you feel with this subject. Your post has a feel of my first post 18 months or so back.
But stick with it, it's a great subject to get into if you like engines.
At first it's super daunting or at least it was for me. I came to this subject from an electronic and mechanical background, not a software one. Which was a really, really steep learning curve that hasn't stopped yet. It's a very complex study and even the most proficient on here will tell you that.
This group of people will help you rite through it all the way, but you will be expected to study hard for it.
If you want to go on this journey then do as the guy's say, and start with the tuning wiki link above and read it. It's essential and excellent....
When I first started these guy's walked me through it in baby steps rite from zero so you might also find this thread, that I started with interesting, as it deals with being shown how to get started and moves on to getting your head round ME7 Logger a bit.
http://nefariousmotorsports.com/forum/index.php?topic=11027.msg93212#msg93212Anyway, all the very best
O.T.