nodejs + https + express - Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE)

I have a nodejs server structured like so: (app.js):

var fs = require('fs'),
    http = require('http'),
    https = require('https'),
    express = require('express'),
    connect = require('express/node_modules/connect'),
    app = module.exports = express();

var ssl_options = {
    key: fs.readFileSync('/etc/nginx/ssl/server.key'),
    cert: fs.readFileSync('/etc/nginx/ssl/server.crt')
};

var server = https.createServer(ssl_options, app);

// EXPRESS

// app.set('view options', { layout: false });

var auth_token = "asdfasfdasdfasdf";
var express_session_id = "express.sid";

app.configure(function () {
    app.use(express.cookieParser());
    app.use(express.session({secret: auth_token, key: express_session_id}));

    app.set("view options", {layout: false});
});

app.get('/', function (req, res) {
    console.log (req.headers);
    fs.readFile(__dirname + '/index.html', function(err, data){
        res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/html'});
        res.write(data, 'utf8');
        res.end();
    });
});

app.listen = function(port) {
    server.listen(port);
    console_log.log('info', "COTTONMOUTH server listening on port " + port);
};

I have a cluster.js running the above app.js:

var cluster = require('cluster'),
    os = require('os'),
    workers = {};

if (cluster.isMaster) {

    cluster.on('exit', function(worker, code, signal) {
        if (worker.suicide === false) {
            var exitCode = worker.process.exitCode;
            console.error('worker ' + worker.process.pid + ' died ('+exitCode+'). restarting...');
            cluster.fork();
        }
    });

    var n = process.env.PROC || os.cpus().length;
    for(var i = 0; i < n; i++ ) {
        cluster.fork();
    }

    process.on('SIGTERM', function() {
        console.log('[MASTER] Going for shutdown...');
        for (var id in cluster.workers) { 
            console.log('\tkilling worker: ' + cluster.workers[id].process.pid);
            cluster.workers[id].destroy();
        }
        console.log("[MASTER] Here's looking at you, kid.");
    });

} else {
    require('./app').listen(process.env.PORT || 3456);
}

My problem is that the following setup works fine on my localhost virtual box environment (ubuntu virtual running on a mac host). I am able to access the nodejs server with dev.domain.com:3456.

However, when I move this to my production rackspace server (same environment configs and setup), and try to access it by prod.domain.com:3456

The browser hangs for a bit and returns Error 324 (net::ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE): The server closed the connection without sending any data.

I did some research and have found some leads but weren't too helpful.

Any Ideas?

UPDATE:

when i lower the port down to 90, it seems to work which is interesting. I am going to leave it at port 90 for now but if someone has an answer to why this is.

Thanks