The first post i've made for some time!
Hey Geoff
I'd recommend the 28RS with 0.63 A/R turbine housing. Personally i think the its perfect for the 2litre as the 0.84 A/R is slower to spool and is still going when the car runs out of revs. the 2.4 would be happier with this and more i'm sure. The R is older technology so why step backwards?
Ive been running one of these (the RS) for the last year and it spools the same as my old t28 hybrid but is slightly less aggressive which is great in lower gears. The difference is it never runs out of guts and i'm still only running it on base boost of 0.9 bar! This is coupled with the standard intercooler with modified intake piping to accommodate the 3 inch intake.
It does require some work to get it to fit namely cutting a bit of the actuator bracket away to allow the oil line in and you need the adaptor plug to fit the oil line as the thread is less coarse and also a different size
plus modding the original turbo to block bracket as the GT28RS is a bigger unit. Then of course its exhaust mods as well. I did away with the V band and had a 5 bolt flange cut and my exhaust cut and welded to this.
However it is more than worth it for what you get in return. Im still only running the original G tec and the car went from 250 bhp to 300bhp on the same chip and fuelling is still correct at the top end and i know the intake charge is no where near as warm. You are then left with the headroom for upgrading to a uni chip or after market ECU to get the best from this unit.
The best place in the UK as far as i know is APEX performance at 775 inc VAT which is mucho value. A decent hybrid is 5 600 hundred unless there is a group buy? I got mine in the GP turbos group buy a few years ago for 360 i think it was and that was converting my original turbo and sending it back to me.
Depends how much you can be bothered to take on, but it seems like you are up for heavy mods. If so i'd go for the RS everytime!