[morzh]

I am also ashamed to say I had a 500ohm resistor instead of a 500K. Newbie mistake.

Will replace them tomorrow. Do you think this could be the cause ?????

This picture explains where the error was..
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B7HgNUfIcAAxTE-.jpg

This is not likely to cause smoking either.

I just discovered that I mixed up the 490K and 240K resistor (#22 and 23 on the schematic).. had them reversed.  Could that be the cause ? Here is a photo of the caps I am using and of my center tap (Yellow and green)

No this will not cause any smoking.

Now. Back to smoking.

I thought you said you used 630V caps for the lytics.
Your pic shows 450V caps.
If your tubes do not conduct and the voltage stays at the 500V level, that can blow a cap....in theory.

Have you measured the voltage across the cap when it was heating?