I have been PM'ing X5only back and forth sharing ideas as I am having similar issues after doing nearly the exact same repairs (minus the valley pan gasket and coolant pipe). I am going to try and "Activate the Ram backup on DME" right now using PASoft. If anyone knows how to do that, please chime in.

X5only - Thanks again for sharing what you have been finding. I tried to send you a PM response, but your message box was full. I'll be checkin for updates.... Fingers are crossed for us both!