The spool is hardened steel, just like the outdrives - we also had some new driveshafts ( front ) which are silver in color , they are slightly longer and also have longer drive pins which protrude past the edge of the outdrive cup.
The engine is in fact an EVO3 STI, they used the Evo2 head due to the hotter weather , apparently lowers the temp by about 25 deg.]
If you guys have any more questions fire away, I was there!