RJM wrote:
IMO and after reading the entire thread, I think your problem relates back to the symptoms before it died, the new racor head, and perhaps the install of your fuel pump. I assume that the pump is not mounted anywhere near the tank. The tank connections are prone to vac. leaks, and are designed to function under pressure. you may have slugged up a ton of air and are just having problems getting proper prime. The original 0093 code is a sure indication of that. If it were me I would put everything back to stock. clear the codes, bleed the system well, crank away and see if any new codes pop up.

I would agree with you... Except for my own experience with my VE pump on the Jetta. On TDI Club, a few people kept pointing at the pump as the source of the problem, even when I had another well-respected member on there physically wrenching on the thing with me, and he didn't think it was the pump either. Add in a professional mechanic, and you have a collection of brains all adding up the symptoms and never finding the true cause.
It was hard to start, but ran GREAT when running. Turns out, after getting the pump rebuilt (the shop thought it might have been the swap from LSD to ULSD and the change in lubricant that caused seal failure) that the Jetta ran even better after.
Here is a super-fast way to verify what is going on here however - IV bottle. Get a 5 gallon can of fresh diesel, disconnect the outgoing fuel line from the filter head (the one that goes directly to the CP3) and extend it into the 5 gallon can. Plug the filter line with a bolt, or extend that into another can so it doesn't make a mess from your lift pump. No filters, no extra pumps, just a non-pressurized can of diesel being sucked up by the CP3 and a very long straw. If you have a vacuum pump, drawing a vacuum from the fuel rail's return line should prime the CP3 and drench it in lubricating fuel. You can ask it to self-prime from intermittent cranking of the engine... But I would avoid this if possible.
The purpose of this is to isolate EVERYTHING back to the basics - Just the pump. If the pump is bad, no amount of cranking will make it fire. If it starts and runs, sucking from that fresh bottle... Then the problem is elsewhere.
Clear vinyl hose won't last more than a few weeks in the presence of fuel, but is cheap and will last long enough to let you SEE what is actually moving around here. You need this information at this point before big $$$ come into play.
I spent over $2000 trying to get my Jetta's hard-to-start issue resolved, including $500 labor rebuilding the pump. Save yourself the other $1500, try this.