Today I picked up the 02 WRX wagon from Underground. Those guys did a fantastic job replacing my clutch/adding lightweight flywheel. They were changing the transmission gear oil and found metal pieces. It was gear teeth...

Now I have to decide what to do before my transmission falls apart. Supposedly the guy before me replaced the gearset with a RA gearset. Well it looks like he may have cut corners and left in the old syncros and bearings. Luckily I can start driving my summer car while I get parts for this new project.

I am leaning very heavily toward the JDM STi ver 6 Gearset (Non-RA) due to the strength of the gears and the slightly longer ratio.

Anyone have any words of advice or suggestions?

I suggest you going out and getting yourself the Haynes book History of the Impreza. It has all the stories and history of the impreza and the phenomena now called WRC.
In the back of the book it has all specs for every impreza ever made. There you will be able to find a list of gear ratios and final drive ratios. Then you can decide what you are looking for out of every gear. If you are looking to fine tune your transmission and not spend a lot of money doing it over and over, I suggest that book to start out with and find out what you need out of your gears. Do you want first gear to go forever or do you want to slap through 3 gears in 3 seconds? The choice is yours, information is in there that you need.

I will try to pick up a copy of the book in the next few weeks. I did a little reading of the FAQ here on Nasioc in the transmission section. I learned alot about the available gear ratios, both OEM and aftermarket. I also learned about a 6 speed swap and easy/cheap it sounds but really isn't. I will continue my quest for knowledge and learning about the history of the transmission is the first place.

I just feel like my current RA gears are too short. They were fine until I started making more power then they started becoming an annoyance.