Vvt lock or not
Don't be afraid to run the Ritter short intake or the OC. I run a prefix manifold $650(same as Ritter) and the car runs really good. when I started my swap i had the Hemi 6 box with a Fast efi mounted to the intake ran really good. I have evolved over the years to Port injection(My son drilled my intake for port injection)the prefix has the bosses molded into it. changed to a true throttle body and the car runs even better. I used the budget friendly process. I bought what i needed saved money then sold off the old to purchase the new to lessen the cost. it was fun and learned a bunch. I would do the same way all over again.
I changed heads, cam, throttle body(went Bigger) larger injectors blah blah blah. the car is really spicy now. and still with the junk yard bottom end with new bearing.
as I have said in the past i wanted to prove to my buddies that all did LS swaps that a gen 3 is possible right out of the junk yard as well. and it is.