So I ended up ordereing the Buzzken downpipe and midpipe kit and will be shipping the ECU to bwareca this weekend.

Decided against butchering the scr and dpf because they are in working condition and I might be able to sell them.

Plan on doing a few things to settle some questions I still have after reading other accounts:

1. before and after 0 to 60 video on the same road and recreating same conditions as best as possible.
2. I took a screenshot of my trip computer showing average speed and average mpg right now. After the project and some driving I'm gonna take another screenshot whenever the trip computer hits the same avg speed and similar miles driven. It should give a fairly accurate estimate of what happens to the mpg under similar driving conditions.
3. before and after exhaust sound changes at idle and under acceleration at the tail pipe.
4. Weight total weight savings in parts before and after.

Any other ideas I'm open to suggestions before I pull the ecu. This is a very exiting project