Are you turning the key to the ON position that many times, or actually cranking it that many times? Turning the key to ON activates the glow plugs if the system is working, but if your light isn't coming on at all or it only flashes for a brief moment followed by a bunch of clicks, that isn't right. Means either you have dead glow plugs, a dead controller, or both.

Stalling after staring is likely air intrusion. I'd start with the return lines (replace the GPs at the same time if they're dead; it's easier) and go from there. When I bought mine, changing out the GPs and redoing the return lines (including o-rings and caps) took it from being a royal PITA to start to an absolute breeze. Starts on the first crank every time now.

Mike