basically just read up on dsm.org for info, and once you've gone through it, go through it again, ive read a great deal on that site and still havent had everything sink in. also read up on stuff at tbdsm too, there is some good information there as well. as for reliability, thats basically on you, and the condition of the car, if your afraid of crankwalk dont get a 2G (in my opinion i like the boxed out 1G's anyway) i have a laser rs-x (awd model incase u havent heard of it) and i somehow fucked it up, normally driving and i lost cyl3...but hey, like any other car, things will happen, just make sure u have some backup funds or a spare car incase something is to happen. and you can pick up a 1G awd for 1/3 of that 2G

as for tuning, some of us will play with some settings ourselves, but there is a database of AFC settings on dsm.org that are used for a starting point, but i hear Secret Services is a good tuning place. but you wont want to tune it till you've done some work.