Good morning Gents! Ok, this is really stupid, just like a said it will most likely be because I followed all installation procedures and troubleshooting suggestions from you guys. But I will swallow my pride and tell you what asinine thing I did:
When I took offer the rockers for inspection, I forgot to mark them. I set aside in a container until I got my cylinders back. Here is where my stupidity comes into play: the rocker arms were left twisted backwards (during inspecting them), opposite of the embossed marking that are supposed to be facing outwards. It looks the same when twisted backwards & rockers reversed! So I it is apparent that the reversed arms and the raised embossed surface was just enough to interfere the clearance. It just goes to show the importance of paying attention to small details. Once I figured this out, everything went on like a piece of cake!
I really want to thank you all for being so driven on helping me. Since I have done this before, referred to various instructions, and put into play all of your input, I couldn't think for the life of me what was wrong, so I knew it had to be operator error. Sorry for taking up some of your time, but I am thankful at the same time.