Spent the rest of the afternoon fixing the fuel leak. that in it's self was an ordeal! replaced all of the return hoses on the injectors and fired it up...
still had a slight miss like it did when the leak started.. hmmm.. cracked each injector line one at a time and found nothing. all 8 injectors firing.
stood back and watched the engine shake as it idled and scratching my head. revving it up and the miss went away, looked it over with my flashlight (getting dark outside) and low-n-behold another fuel leak. this time it was pissing from the drivers side somewhere even with new return hoses!! finally tracked it down to #7 injector. pulled the new return hoses and looked them over, seemed good, chopped off the ends anyway and popped them back on the injector. Dam this engine is hot!! fired it up and still leaking... finally said maybe one of the little return hose barbs was bent or cracked. pulled the injector while burning my hands in the process!! didn't see anything obvious so I chunked it on the tester.
it chattered just fine at the same pressure I had set it at without any issues and no fuel leaking from the body or from the return barbs. reinstalled it on the engine, connected the same return hoses and tightened up the IP line. fired it up and no leak and no more missing!! Not sure what happened here but it seems to be fixed now.