[RubyCamaro]

Ruby down! Ruby Down! This year the fest was NOT fun for me. Mike won 1st place for 4th gen in the car show but I was miserable in the heat dealing with my ailing Camaro. Ruby started running rough from the time I started her to go to Bowling Green & was idling REALLY rough, but no check engine or other dummy lights. The next morning when I started driving to Beech Bend Raceway, it was still running rough but I almost immediately got the check engine light. I was having to keep it at 1000 rpm at stops. Once we got there I had a friend check it with a code reader & it was throwing 7 codes, misfires, lean codes & some others. Consensus among mechanically inclined friends was to try changing plugs. RacerGirl's Dad helped us change the plugs. One on driver side was not too bad & other two were really burned looking. On passenger side, 2 plugs came out completely drippy wet with oil & the other just blackened on the end. With the new plugs it seemed to run a bit better but check engine light came back on. RacerGirl's dad said he could hear air escaping from the manifold area & come to find out the 4 bolts on top of the plenium/manifold are stripped out. Not the bolts themselves, but the bolts had the threads from inside the holes in the manifold on them when they were removed. We managed to get a couple of the bolts to grab a little & got it driven home. Mike worked on it some today and now it is throwing black smoke out the exhaust & does not want to idle at all. We are looking at getting some longer bolts to grab down deeper (I have a manifold insulator & stock bolts) or taking the Black Iceolator off, getting a new gasket & see if the stock bolts will grab. Even with all that I will still need to figure out the issue with oil on the plugs. Now to find a mechanic I trust & decide if I need to have her towed. Once I get it sorted out I may just sell her. Feels like a sign. Any ideas, thoughts or helpful hints welcome.