Join this site as a member and look in the technical archives section, stu has done some fantastic write ups.
Also ask away, quite a few of us have done a bit of "ameteur" mapping too as well as the pro's on the site like stu/karl/mark
What you really need though is a good basic understanding of what an engien requires to make it go well, the mapping itself is just attempting to achieve that, if you dont know the effects of ignition timing on an engine or different fuel mixtures,i would NOT recomed giving it a go just yet.