This is something that might give you a clue as to what is happening. If you have an external hard drive, install on it a clean install of 10.7.3. Create one admin user on the external 10.7.3 install. Don't install any third party software on the external 10.7.3 install. Boot to the external hard drive and see if you still get kernel panics.
I have a clean install of 10.7.3 on a external hard drive. I use it to diagnose problems that may occur with my computers. What this helps me do is isolate any installed software as the cause of an issue.
In regard to the OP, if after trying the clean install on an external hard drive and you still have kernel panics then you probably have a hardware issue. I say this as I also have a 2011 27" iMac and have not yet had a single kernel panic since clean installing Lion.