Ok thanks for your help. I tried KISS with just the TS cables from main out on the pod to front of amps with nothing in the chain except ping pong delay and it works, so at least that is eliminated and it's something to do with the fx loop itself.
[SOLVED] I tore everything down and rebuilt. I noticed the left main out is on the right hand side and the right main out is on the left hand side, so the cables have to cross. You wouldn't think it would matter, you would just get reversed stereo, but apparently it does. The amps have a switch on the fx loop for line or instrument level, I may have had one amp on line and the other on instrument. Using the same patch it now works and it does not matter if the fx loop is on or off, before or after the stereo ping pong, it works great. Not 100% sure what it was. Thanks grdGo33.