thanks for the condolences guys

@ perkam - that 3/8" tube over half inch barb literally cant be pulled off, when you want to undo the tubing it must be cut


so thanks to some zalman tubing clamps (to crimp tubes to seal) I was able to replace the dead pump very easily with only about 50ml of fluid leak (paper towels handled that ) without drainging the loop

after completely redoing everything and quadruple checking my wiring, the system fired up and went through a full post to boot I still have to test video output and the functionality of both video cards but so far so good. I am off to dinner at my girlfriend's house but I'll keep you guys up to speed with further updates