If you're setting the fuel pressure and it's dropping by itself... you might have a bad AFPR or gauge. I had that problem, the piston in the AAFPR was sticking and I'd set it and it would change by itself for no apparent reason.
Once you set the fuel pressure try hooking up the vacuum and then pulling the vacuum off again, it should go down and then right back up to what you set it to. If it sticks or returns to a different base pressure then you have a problem.