seems like nobody has answered your second question so far "how much is the car worth as a roller"?

Well here's my math:
You probably paid around $20k for the car.
Putting a new engine in will cost around $12k ~ $15k.
So the worth of the car as a roller is probably around $5 ~ $6k (if you find anyone interested), depending on how the car looks and if it has Xenon etc.

That's not much and so IMHO your only way is to "raise" the cash and get a new engine

(P.S.: have a look at the last line in my signature)

OUCH! I guess it may get parted out then. I'd have to be able to get more than that out of it in pieces I'd think, since every little sensor is $200 to $700 new.

Parting it out sounds good, unless you consider the value of your time to do it, if you would buy many of those used parts for your car, how many parts you will ruin getting to the one that you sold and what it will cost to get rid of what is left, IF you can get rid of it anywhere.

Have you thought about looking for a used engine? I know that sounds scary but it might be doable from a money perspective.

I have considered the possibility of attempting to swap in a used motor myself, but I won't consider paying a shop to swap in another 2.5 time bomb. This option is probably not a terribly smart one to make, as I wouldn't even consider myself a shade-tree mechanic when it comes to Porsches. If it was a VW I'd be pulling the motor tomorrow, but it's not. Instead I'll spend my time drafting a nice letter to my friends at Porsche, since I'm a far better writer than wrencher. Though it's clearly out of warranty it has fewer than 68k miles on it and is bone stock and unmolested. I'd expect a Hyundai to last twice as long; I'd have expected a Porsche motor to last longer than that. If nothing else it should make me feel slightly better just to express my feelings even if they do nothing.

Used engine
 

Hey man, I know it sucks that your motor blew, as mine did this last year, and I hated the car for it. Heres the thing though, I am going to be removin my engine from my car. I have a motor that Greff motors put in my car back in december, and now has about 40k miles on it. I have the documentation on it, and would be willing to make you a sweet deal if you want to bring your box back to life. It is still in the car and you can listen to it purr.

Let me know! My price is $4,000.00 firm, plus shipping.

Why are you pulling the motor? I'll keep this in mind. I'm trying to come up with a list of possible solutions and will decide on a course of action once I calm down and regain my ability to think rationally.

because I hate my car, and am sick of dumping money into it everytime it breaks. I have spend 30 grand on this damn thing in the past year and a half, and ive had enough. Now, some shaft in my transmission is shot, and ive had enough. no more investing money in it. Im gonna get some of it back instead.

I'm sure it doesn't make you feel any better at all, but I feel your pain.

yea, I know. A lot of people with these cars feel my pain. if I had to do it all over again, Id buy a brand new porsche with warranty. Note would be more, but still less than all these repairs.

The co-owner of this forum has a Mazda Miata with a tubocharged engine (aftermarket). Great little car and very quick indeed.

Long story short, he decided to find another used engine to replace the existing one, which has a bad head.

Cost shipped to his door? $850.

My point of course is that with our Boxsters, it is not just that they seem to always have some issue, but that the cost of the issue seems to always be ridiculous..

I am not suggesting that everyone go out and buy a Miata. I am suggesting that Porsche in some sense, playing us all for suckers on the cost of repairs side of the ledger.

Update
 

I appreciate the help you've all provided and figured I'd let you know where I stand right now. I'm not replacing the motor with either a 2.5 or 3.4 because I just don't believe in the motors anymore. I am going to look a bit in to the Chevy conversion, but will likely just dump the car. The highest bid right now is $6500. Anything over that will be entertained. It's a shame my 20 year love affair with Porsche had to end this way.

I have never heard of anyone putting a Chevy engine in a Boxster, this isn't a 914. Will anyone even do it?
You might also consider the Subaru boxer engine.

I know this is an emotional time, right now, but I think in a few years you'll look back and see it was also an emotional decision.
You talk like every Boxster motor is going to fail, it's only a matter of time, while not seeing that the vast majority of them don't fail.
Bad luck is bad luck and I'm sorry your luck was that.
It's also a bad decision for Porsche to have a replacement as the only option on the Boxster engine , when parts availability would make them as rebuildable as every other engine on earth. That one is a mystery to me. They would make money on parts, also.

Renagade Hybrids has been doing Chevy conversions on 944s, 911s, and 914s and I'm just going to check with them to see if they are in development of a Boxster kit. It could be cool and is the only way I may be comfortable keeping the car. I loved driving it, but I just wouldn't trust it anymore with a Porsche power plant.

I know not every Boxster motor is going to fail, but based on the limited information available it appears that somewhere between 10 and 25% of them fail due to RMS, IMS, or a slipped sleeve. I'll call it a 10% failure rate and in my opinion half of that would still be way too high for any reputable manufacturer of "durable" goods. Hyundai stands behind their cheap North Korean econo-boxes with a 10 year, 100,000 mile warranty. Why doesn't Porsche, a company with a (recently underserved in my mind) reputation for longevity have a similar policy? I no longer believe in German engineering and as has been suggested so many times on this board, I will not own a Porsche without a warranty because it's just too risky.

As for being emotional about it, yes, I most certainly am. I have been obsessed with these cars for 20 years and feel betrayed by them. A reputable company claiming that "The most valuable capital this company has is its loyal customers with their sense of Porsche responsibility." (taken from the PCNA web-site http://www.porsche.com/usa/aboutporsche/porschecarsnorthamerica/n432/ ) should stand behind the product they build, fix the engineering flaws that become aparent, and take care of their customers so that we, as my father did, instill the love of Porsche in our kids and grandchildren that made the company successful. Failure to stand behind your products and take care of loyal customers is asking for failure.

Man, I'm sorry to hear about your engine blowup. It would be nice if Porsche offers a 10 yr. / 100K mile powertrain warranty just like Hyundai, but they probably will never do so. Hyundai does it cause simply like you said, the powertrain would be cheap to replace in a Hyundai, but not in a Porsche. That being said, with all the stuff you read on Porsche boards about engine failures, I believe Porsche should step up and goodwill replace any failed engines due to RMS, IMS, or slipped sleeve issues. It would go a long way in restoring confidence in the Pcar community.

FWIW, however, as much as I've heard about these issues for all these years I've been on these boards, the only problems I've ever personally had on my 2001 Boxster were a cracked coolant tank and peeling radio knobs/door pocket lids, which were all replaced under warranty. I think now with the modern Porsches (the 987/997 line), you see even less stories about blown engines, so it may not even be much of an issue these days, but it would be nice if Porsche took care of the folks who have issues like you, to restore their reputation, and insure that they don't lose any more future customers due to this known issue. Good luck with your situation.

Also, have you contacted Porsche about this. If you bought the car used, and the previous owner had an engine replacement, you might be able to get PCNA to fix the car. I have only heard of them fixing a blown engine out of warranty once or twice, but it would be worth asking.

Addiction,

Sorry to hear about your engine failure.

I think the letter to PCNA is a good idea. Follow it up with phone calls, too.

My car suffered the dreaded IMS failure wihile with its previous owner. He had it religiously serviced at the local dealer, so they went to bat for him with PCNA. End result is Porsche paid for 75% of the total cost of replacement, despite the fact that the car had 69K miles on it and was out of warranty.

I think you have a stronger case if you can document the maintenance history and an even stronger argument if most of the service was done by dealers. Do you have any records from the PO?

Unfortunately I don't have any records from the previous owners. Through carfax I know it has been a CT car with 2 owners before me, but I can not verify maintenance history. I really don't expect anything to come of contacting PCNA, but I need to do it just to make myself feel better. Plus, if I don't let them know about what happened they won't have the opportunity to make good on it.

Addiction, that is some good advice. Carfax tells you it has been a CT car it's entire life, you should be able to find out who it belonged to and what dealers it was serviced at. That could go a LONG way toward getting some help from Porsche. It will take some leg work, but what do you have to lose?