I went back to the car, disconnected the pressure gauge and put back the 3 way banjo and fired her up! It stalled a few times due to air but by feathering the pedal I got the air out and she's back to running normal.

So it was air and my inability to bleed the system. The factory bleed procedure didn't work. I still don't understand why it is so difficult to bleed.

Thanks everyone for the help, especially Brain for telling me it is NOT the IP, which I and the fuel inj shop I was calling for advise was pretty certain of based on everything I tried.

So the turning point was removing the check valve and crank, which got rid of enough air and brought enough fuel into the IP which allowed it to get an itzy-bitzy amount of fuel to the injectors and she fired. .

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85 300D turbo pristine w 157k when purchased 161K now
83 300 D turbo 297K runs great. SOLD!
83 240D 4 spd manual- parted out then junked