Kudos man (and everyone else contributing), you've been a great help... have everything ordered and just waiting for veedub to give me the go ahead so I can take his board from him =P
I'll be doing some research later on looking on how to leak test with a DC pump... the tripping the PSU sounds very... interesting... but makes sense, I just need better info on the EXACT precise steps to take to not burn my equipment or myself up...