Al's GT-350 is a Late April build and He will be at the VA Beach show (I believe he will enter in trailered although he lives 10 minutes from the show site).
As for the smog tubes...from my research, I was morre convinced the tubes should have had the pinched ends instead of the capped ends. I had found the Ford went the the capped end in May, consistent with your motor. Also, Al's tubes are repros as the pinched tubes were in the unobtainium price range.
Overall, you pictures are very consistent to what I have learned about the J-code motors. That heater hose bracket looks suspicously close to a wire clip! You called out a notice on the ps side spark plug wire separator bracket...are you going to follow that same approach sans the bracket for your GT-350?
Regards,
Pete Morgan