I'm an electromechanical guy in a solid-state world. I understand what you are doing, and why you are doing it, and would probably have a pretty good idea how to fix it if it broke.
But the "building blocks" were something I never got into, nor were there good classes for basic electronics in the small-town HS I attended.
Regarding understanding thermodynamics, etc.-- those are physical (rather than electronic) principles. I can "see" what's happening in my mind's eye with heat transfer, flame fronts in combustion, the Bernoulli effect (and how it relates to carburetors and exhaust headers), etc.-- but electronics and DDC logic never "clicked" the way that electromechanical stuff did, which hampers me. If I do go to EFI on my T1, I'll definitely have a lot of questions.
As it stands, I'll probably send my (modern) gasoline heater to Danny for some modification (I'd like the controls/safeties to be greatly simplified).