Apparently I am one of the unlucky 1%! My cheap 99 boxster has a bad IMS. I am not overly surprised or upset, at least fixing it will remove that big unknown.
I drained the oil and dropped the sump. See the attached picture of debris I found in the sump. Most of it is plastic but there were 2 metal pieces large enough to pick out. They appear to be part of a ball bearing, about 4.8 mm long, ferrous.
Showed the picture to a Porsche mechanic. He said, "That is IMS debris, don't start the engine until it is fixed!"
I will be ordering the bearing, RMS and clutch in the next few days. A friend and I will do the repair........
