[thstone]

After replacing my engine 4 times, I can confidently say that you can have a shop replace a 2.5L engine for less than $4,000. You just have to be a careful buyer.

2.5L engines with 90K miles can be purchased on eBay for $2500 or less. I have paid $1,850, $2,250, and $2,475 for my replacements.

I just checked eBay and there is a 91K mile 2.5L engine listed for $2200 + $250 shipping. You can easily get this for $2,250 with shipping.

Plan on $500 for consumables/parts and $1250 to swap the engines. For an experienced shop that knows what they're doing, its an 8-10 hour job and should be done in 2-3 days. When I had my last engine swapped in Nov, 2018, my local shop had the old engine completely removed in about 2 hrs!

If you want to keep the car, $4K is pretty cheap to extend the life of your existing Boxster for another 75,000-100,000 miles.

If you want to sell the car, putting $4K into a what is now a $3K car (because of the failed engine) will be pretty much break even.

Of course, if you can DIY the engine swap, then you're that much further ahead.