My engine died... not from an IMS failure

[fab986]

Last Wednesday my wife and I decided to take the Boxster to go out for lunch. After about 5-10 minutes of driving I hit the gas to pass a car when suddenly something felt very wrong with the engine, like if it was running on 3 or 4 cylinders all of a sudden. I pulled over immediately and got the car to a safe place. I called a tow service and took the car to my independent Porsche specialist (he only works on Porsche and has over 30 years of experience).

This morning he calls me and tell me that after performing a compression testing it turns out that cylinder#4 has no pressure at all which is probably due to some damage to one or more valves and maybe to the cylinder itself but he won't know for sure what's the extent of the damage until he takes the whole engine apart. He tells me that taking the engine apart and rebuilding it would cost me $8,000 and it would probably be cheaper to swap the whole engine anyway. I purchased the car about a year ago for $10k so spending another $8k is out of the question. On top of that, he tells me that he won't be able to do anything about it because he's retiring due to health issues so he referred me to another independent Porsche specialist in my area.

This is my first Porsche and I always wanted a Porsche since I was a kid. I bought the car about a year ago but I really enjoyed it during that short time. I feel really sad especially because the car looks very good cosmetically and in excellent condition other than now being a roller. Should I look into replacing the engine? Should I try to sell it as-is? Should I dismantle it and sell the parts (is it even legal)?

I'm not sure what you would do in my place... I can definitely use some advice.

Here's some info on the car:
Black 2001 Boxster S, 86,000 mi

Thanks,
fabrice