sounds like you should try to start it with the plug crooked.
could just be the ecu plug is bad. pins bent, wires pulled out. a number of things can cause that problem.
who knows, maybe that first ecu had bent pins, and that jacked your plug up. That would explain the whole "it gave my boy problems buy worked for me" aswell as the situation you have now.
From what you've described, I would focus on that ecu plug until another symptom comes up.