I have not looked at the BPR on the 7.3 but. I am familiar with regulators.
I would take another look at it. If you can reach 65 psig by blocking the fuel return between the valve and the tank, but only 30 psig when allowing the the BPR to do it's job, its leaking at best. There might be a problem with the seat,the poppet or the spring. Are you sure it's assembled correctly? What was in the kit? The BPR should not allow any flow below its set point (about 55 psig). It works like a relief valve. It's held closed below it set point but the spring. At higher pressures, the fuel relives the spring pressure by pushing on a diaphragm. The poppet lifts off the seat allowing the fuel around the diaphragm. This reduces the pressure on the diaphragm and allows the poppet to re-seat.

 

i can take a look at it again, and i'll get back to you on that.

the rebuild kit had:

Fuel Poppet (brass piston)
Fuel Poppet seat (Regulator seat)
Fuel Poppet guide
Fuel Poppett guide o-ring
FPR housing o-ring
Fuel Poppet spring


and that's the deal right there, i agree with you, it's brand new but something is very wrong.


since my last post i've pulled out the fuel filter housing to inspect for possible cracks. it's all cleaned up now. not sure, but i'm inclined to say there is nothing wrong with it, but after re-installing it, i'll check if my fingers get wet with fuel when fumbling around it.
might as well have all my bases covered, it's proving to be tricky.


now that you mentioned about the FPR, and i do have the fuel housing in the house, i just took a jab at it, and blew on it (FPR). couldn't fit my head for whatever reason inside the bowl, so had to do it from the outside


i still have the shim on it, but the air i'm blowing through it goes all the way through! not strong, but it's letting in air. shouldn't do that right?

 

ICP problems and fuel pressure problems are not related (unless it's an injector o-ring thing), which I doubt in your case as that issue usually causes a smokey and low power but running engine.

I have the RR FPR, and once I screwed up the spring when putting it back together. I had wonky fuel pressure, but it still ran.

You have an ICP / IPR duty cycle issue going on, as those numbers are not consistent across your posts here. Pulling the ICP sensor gave you the default ICP of 2200psi for cranking, which allowed the PCM to fire the injectors. Any amount of ICP and fuel pressure will put some fuel in the cylinders and give smoke, if not a sputter.

As a mechanical engineer, I'm biased against electrical things and have more faith in the HPOP than the IPR controlling it. If you can find another IPR, try it. Or at least remove yours, take it all apart and clean it, then try it again. I had intermittent stalling and no start issues with wonky IPR-DC / ICP numbers, and in my case it was the IPR. I had rebuilt it several years earlier for no reason other than I had all that stuff out of the engine. I didn't try to rebuild it this time, just got a new one.

 

alright, the truck is running again!

good call Karlow on the IPR! took it apart again, and what do i find? twisted o-ring. fixed that, put it back together, tested by blowing on it. no air!

so this morning i put it back on, got everything back together, and tried. 60-65 psi! cranked, she sputtered on, and coughed out.

so, i took your advice SaintITC, as another scan showed again odd ball readings still. as the IPR wasn't on from that long, swapped it at the store for an exchange, stuck it on and tried again.
worked! truck started, went for a test drive, and all's looking good. the scan shows that everything is acting much more normal. turned off the truck and tried again, and it turned on again!

thanks everybody for you help again hopefully this time for good!

 

I love a success story!
It all good, we help you out and we learn how to fix our toys at the same time.

 

right on!
and it's definitely been a learning curve for me, never dealt so much with sensors and fuel problems before. never had a scanner besides the typical obdII too until recently.

 

This is by far the best internet forum for 7.3s so many guys that can help. Usually I don't get to respond because someone has beat me to the punch! WHEN IS IT GONNA BE MY TURN!? But all jokes aside, glad you got it running, I hate to see people have trouble with these old reliable engines.

 

thanks, kbarbee95, that makes two of us.
same here, great site, everyone really on top of things. i get the same deal ha!