When I had SAWS Tunning adjust my ECU , they never even opened the boot let alone removed the ECU . It was done through the diagnostic port near the fuses. I was given the option of various stages of tune which would give very mild burbling to ear splitting back fire which I certainly didn't want . In other words you wouldn't see any disturbance around the ECU . I was told the remapping could be reverted to standard if necessary. You would only find out if this is the cause of your back fire if you had the ECU interrogated by a turning company .