Maybe you want to try contacting Jake Raby about this and fill him in on what you experienced and observed with that picture you showed us. He'll know the right questions to ask you to find out what's wrong, and you may find that there are other options open to you to make the car whole.

@ghostrider: Looking at the pictures you've posted, I can tell my boxster has the same leakage (but very minor) on the left bank. But an oil leakage on the head most likely comes from a bad gasket and doesn't mean something catastrophic to the engine, in most cases.

About the noise you ear on startup, it could likely be the timing chain running over the tensioner for the very first seconds of motion. This happens if you use a lubricating oil which has a very low cold grade such as 0-50W, whichi needs some seconds to get in flow and pressure.

If you're scared about your IMS, just get your gearbox and flywheel off and check it. When you pull off the cap and loose the retaining bolt, you're able to see the bearing in its housing. Move it as it must not have any play axial or radial.

Jake Raby's pages are really meaningful about that and, at least -as I did- you can buy the new Guardian and let it monitoring your IMS all the time. It maybe worth the whole engine value in case of... s

Well, this morning I stated up the boxster after two days and, as a magic, the CEL went off after driving it a while... It's a godd sign but I just want to go deep in it...

Well,

yesterday I took the cer to the Porsche dealer to get the codes read. Oxygen sensor bank 1 was dead and I noticed lot of misfires as told before.

The car seems to be the same as was before, just a little responsive at low rpm but very little.

I had no more events at startup but not convinced it was the only problem.

Let see.