thanks for the suggestions guys. i've been under the car for hours now and can't see anything! gonna buy more oil tomorrow and get someone to crank it while i watch. thank God I wasn't using royal purple . so far i've narrowed it down to be on the back of the block, lower than the head gasket and on the gearbox side of the oil filter.
the only thing i know to be there is the oil breather chamber. the top half is empty and i couldn't get it off to check the bottom - rounded the bolt. i swear it's tighter than a crank pulley bolt!! ridiculous!

what does the bottom of this thing do? afaik the top half is basically a catch can for crank case ventilation.

and what is the little black valve looking thing that sticks up on my intake? it's shown in the manual but there's no description or info how to connect the vacuum lines to it - or any of the vacuum lines for that matter!