Following up. I ended up using my cheap 10 inch drill press and a 5/8 reamer to open up the upper tubes to 5/8. I lightly clamped in a vise on the drill press and carefully reamed them out. Worked just fine.
I reinstalled the pushrods and set lifter preload about .145. I'd say 80% of the tap/tick noise is gone. Don't know if it was the tubes or the .145 preload, which is a tad more than the .140 previously set.
Now though, I have an off-beat/off rhythm tap that doesn't not seem to track exactly with the engine and is not always present. "Tap...tap, tap....tapety, tap....tap...tap, tap" My eyes are drawn to the front cylinder, top vs bottom. I'll do some more inspection, tightening of things to see if its something else rattling. I am suspicious that my compensator is starting to make noise (put in the thicker fueling small spring, but no change).