If the vehicle has injector issues such as partially stuck or clogged it can produce the bucking and surging feel. I struggled with this for a while...
All it takes is a VERY short duration of no communication to set those codes. Often times set by the BCM when it requests a state of health request....
I was under the impression that with the maf failed you ran off of the low spark table and didn't get any knock learn, this is why I went to a custom...
I didn't think so either on the burst knock but I found a thread in some rabbit hole that mentioned it and thought I'd give it a try... Funny though...