It's a good sign that the car is running now. It sounds you just have some bugs to work out. They are probably all or some of the following: bad MAF, dirty plugs, bad 02 sensors. The car is definitely going to start throwing codes soon which will help.
MAF:
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Originally Posted by Keith Newby
Isn't the common test for a bad MAF to disconnect it...If the car runs better it's a bad MAF?
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In this case he's probably already in the limp home mode. So disconnecting the MAF may have no effect. It may be the MAF and disconnecting it is a very easy check. If the car runs the same or better with it disconnected then it might be the MAF. The maf is a wire that is heated and measures air flow by how much cooling it receives. In english that means there's a little silver wire that gets dirty. If you pull the MAF out using a security Torx wrench and look at it edge on you'll see where the air flows through it. There should be a shiny wire that air flows across. More likely you'll find a wire that's covered at least partially in what looks like gray fuzz. You can clean the gray fuzz off with acetone (nail polish remover), isopropynol (rubbing alcohol) or electrical component cleaner from autozone. It should be nice and shiny again with no residue when you're done. See if that helps at performance.
O2 sensor
My brother had a Ford with an early computer controller. He had very similar symptoms as you. His O2 sensor rusted out of the exhaust and was dangling under the car. The computer thought the engine was running very lean because it was just seeing fresh air. I haven't touched the boxster ones yet, but most people sem to replace all of them at once. Now might be a good time to go back and look at those codes that you had initially and use them to narrow down your search.