nice to hear you're back on the road. Your car looks perfect-- the paint and roof are mint and the engine is too! Now you' know what you've got'. Are you hooked now that you've driven it for a few more months? What was the final cost?
As to what caused the timing jump I would suggest a broken or severely worn chain tensioner. There is 1 of the 4(?) that is known for this. I guess this is why experts including Porsche always encourage a cam deviation check when looking a car over. There is a Porsche generated spec for this.
Nice seeing your neighbour has a 'Thing'. Happy motoring- you deserve it!:cheers:

Total cost was about 15k. A lot more then I wanted to spend but what's done is done. The paint photographs well. The top is damn near perfect. Need to polish the swirl marks out of the paint.

Funny you mention the Thing. It's actually my wife's. Doesn't fit in our driveway so the neighbor lets me park it there.

Oh, and yes, I LOVE driving it.

I am about to buy a boxster S engine for my 2.7.

I would be willing to sell you my good engine ready to bolt in for a decent 2500.00
It has 69K miles on it.

No need to spend 14,500 bucks.

nevermind, I see that I am super late LOL! For some reason I had only seen the first page of this thread.

A few months ago I'd have jumped at it.

Sorry to hear that it happened, but I am glad your back on the road. After I discovered the IMS bearing issue, it made my experience when driving the car stressful, I always had that little thought in the back of my mind, "is it gonna go now... is it gonna go now?" Then I thought about it and decided that any vehicle that I was driving could have an issue that would leave me on the side of the road in need of a tow. So now I don't even think about and I just drive the car and enjoy it. HOWEVER, if I do lose the engine due to an exploded IMS bearing, I am 100% sure that I am going to do this conversion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P67OSN2DqAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vkENe0nejo

Just a piece of advise for everyone here: please do some research before you decide on such an expensive repair. There are lots of good reputable places where you can get your engine fixed, you do not have to spend a ton of money on it. The internet is a wonderful thing, embrace it!

Holy Cow! The sound of the note is sweet. I use to be an old Harley Shovelhead buff and I love a little noise. If the time comes that I need to do a major repair like Swhitcomb, I'll go this route for sure.

Thanks for the links