[jlaguardia]

Well, I finally got around to measuring the resistance of the new coils - it's easiest just to disconnect them at the color-coded, 2-wire connectors that the coils come with, and I found that they're all in the range of 1.5-1.6 ohms; after subtracting the internal resistance of the meter (0.8 ohms), they all come in at about 0.7-0.8 ohms. I also checked all the old coils, and they are also in that range. I don't have an oscilloscope to measure square wave pulses and stuff like that, but I know someone who does. He's a young fellow who is a Subaru fanatic, goes to school at a local college for an auto tech degree, and owns a WRX-STI. Since I've already spent $1000 on coils and igniters and I'm getting nowhere on a car that's worth about $1500 running (and about $15 not running), I just gave him the car as a project. If he gets it running and doesn't want to keep it, I'll buy it back. If/when I find out the details of what's actually wrong with it, I'll add an update. Thanks everyone for all your hints.