Help! Car dies

[ggjoy]

The history (I'll try to be short): - 1999 A8 with 185K - Car became tough to start a few days ago, then would not start - To check for fuel, broke the engine bay fuel line - no fuel with ignition on - Checked fuses - Fuel pump fuse was blown - Replaced fuel pump fuse - turned ignition on - fuel burst out of fuel line - Reconnected main fuel line - started and ran for few seconds, then fuse blew - Ordered just fuel pump (entire assy too expensive) and replaced fuel pump - What a pita! Did not order gasket set, just tried to reuse existing gaskets - new gasket set for fuel pump about $120!! - Got it all back together, and started car - Car ran for a few minutes, then RPMs would gradually drop, till car dies - Turned ignition on for about 30 seconds then restarted - same result Questions: 1. I'm confident the fuel pump was drawing too many amps and was bad due to fuses 2. Is the fuel pump/gaskets/system drawing air and not maintaining pressure? 3. Despite all existing gaskets looking ok, is this a gasket problem? 4. I will do a fuel pressure test tomorrow to check for pressure leak down on the fuel rail 5. Other posts mention a Fuel Pressure Regulator - possible? 6. There is no fuel in my oil so pretty sure injectors are not leaking 7. Tried to check for codes but my VAG scanner which works perfectly on other cars, gets nothing but "link error" on my Audi. 8. Lastly, I do not have a Bentley manual - just doing this all off of mechanical experience, Audi posts, and any Youtube videos I can find. Thanks in advance!