path1. I feel for your issue. Even more so when you're at the mercy of a shop cause you don't have anywhere to work on it yourself.
So aside from the bonehead move and the sender gasket or whatever leaking, the truck runs fine now? I'll have to re read your post. Thought it was still dying on you.
Haven't lived here too long but I know of the Power Shop. The wife surprised me before our move to AK and got the exhaust brake installed on her 07 while I was out of town. Took it to the Power Shop and they did good work. Clean install and no issues to date. Best part was I didn't have to d!ck with taking the exhaust apart.
Fwiw, you still have a lift pump, just an aftermarket one (fass). Unless I'm missing something, never seen a VP44 truck without one. Don't think vp will suck fuel like a cp3.
On another note, I spent time down in Yuma building a new wastewater treatment plant in the early 2000s. Really liked that town for some reason. Great place.