So at that point, once the exhaust was done and that fuel pump had died, I pushed the truck into my buddy's shop and didn't touch it again for several months. I had burnt myself out on the truck and needed to regroup.
My tuner kept telling me the Delco pump had to be a fluke and that the Delphi was an inferior pump. So I ordered another Delco, threw it in and trailered the truck down to his shop to start tuning. Well guess what...
We only got it to fire a couple times, it would idle like crap and then die again. Then wouldn't fire at all. So back in the trailer it goes to get it out of his way. Around this time, my position at work changed and I now have access to our work area in our R&D center. So that's where I took it this time, so I'd have more room to work. Dropped the tank and threw in another Delco. This time, I also wired in a better relay and located it back at the tank. Re-ran a new, heavier gauge wire as well.
I don't know what made me do it, but when I went to change over the sock, I turned it over on my tailgate and wouldn't ya know, pieces came out! The Spectra sending unit I bought came with a sock that had one of those little plastic pieces in it to keep it from sucking in on itself and the plastic had started to come apart. That must've been what's been eating my pumps! So I grabbed one of our AMD senders off the shelf to rob the sock from and threw it all back together.
FINALLY! I cranked it up and it would idle like it's supposed to and for the first time ever, I actually drove the truck! Only back and forth a few feet but still! That was a huge victory.