Ok I have a high mileage LG4 and I don't have money to drop in a 350 yet, so I was wondering is there anything I can do to make the 305 performe better? I saw this stuff at wal-mart/autozone that you add to the oil to help restore compression and smooth out the cylinder walls and I was wondering if anyone has ever used stuff like this and is it worth it? (don't remember the name of it).

 

Tune it up. Modify it.Don't bother. It's just thick oil.

The only thing that make an engine run smoother is a tune up or repairing something that's broke.

 

Please define "high mileage". I hate to get all Clintonesque here, but that can have a lot of different meanings to different people.

I'm not sure what you might be talking about, but if it's an oil additive, yes, many people have used it. Many places have studied it. The FTC has won rather LARGE settlements from the makers and distributors of it as well:

Slick 50 in $20M lawsuit, loses to FTC.

Blue Corral, the manufacturers of the Slick 50 engine oil additive, have been banned by the Federal Trade Commission from making claims about reduced engine wear, increased fuel economy and lower running temperatures in it's advertising in America. The Federal Commission found the company's claims of increased performance and reduced wear were unsubstantiated, and Blue Corral has agreed to pay upwards of $20M in damages to affected customers.

Source: Max Power magazine, March 1998.


ProLong challenged by Consumer Reports, lose to FTC.

The manufacturers of the ProLong engine additive have been dealt a smack in the face by a Consumer Reports Magazine report into their product. CR attempted to reproduce the "no oil" test where all the oil was drained out of an engine which had been treated with ProLong, and then the engine was run. CR managed a maximum of 13 seconds running out of each of two engine before they seized up, welding the pistons to the barrels. The case is being brought to a Federal Commission for prosecution for false advertising claims. You can subscribe to the online version of Consumer Reports here for a minimal fee, and read all about it in their October 1998 features.

Source: Consumer Reports, October 1998.


DuraLube challenged by Car&Driver, loses to FTC.

The manufacturers of the DuraLube engine additive were dealt a smack in the face by a Car & Driver Magazine report into their product. C&D tried the same tests as Consumer Reports did on ProLong, and had similar results, but in a much quicker time. The C&D engines treated with DuraLube lasted a staggering 11 seconds without oil. You do the math. The Federal Trade Commission dealt with it.....

Source: Car & Driver, September 1999.

MotorUp loses to FTC for deceptive advertising claims.

In an ongoing campaign targeting ads that tout motor oil additives with deceptive claims that they reduce engine wear or extend engine life compared to motor oil alone, the FTC has charged the seller of Motor Up Engine Treatment with making unsubstantiated and deceptive advertising claims, in violation of federal laws. Motor Up Corporation and its principal, Kyle Burns, face an administrative trial.

Source: Federal Register

ZMax to face FTC for misleading advertising.

The Federal Trade Commission has filed suit in U. S. District Court seeking to halt false and misleading advertising for ZMax auto additives and has asked the court to order refunds to consumers who bought the products. The agency alleges that enhanced performance claims for the product are unsubstantiated, that tests cited to support performance claims actually demonstrated that motor oil treated with zMax produced more than twice as much bearing corrosion than motor oil alone, and that the three different products - an engine additive, a fuel line additive and a transmission additive - were all actually mineral oil tinted with food coloring.

Source: Federal Register

 

Synthetic motor oil will help.

Mobil 1

I had an LG4 in a cutlass with not alot of miles but low oil presurre at idle, so I put in synthetic .... (didn;t feel like rebuilding), ran smooth didn't burn as much oil as before and ust generally ran better.

 

To present it bluntly, Stay the F*CK away from additives for your fuel, oil, transmission, etc.

The best thing you can put in your engine is a good synthetic lubricant, like Amsoil or Mobil 1. Then change it regularly. If that doesn't get the maximum life and power from your engine, nothing else will. The only way you could reduce internal friction more would be to install roller bearings on the crank, rods, and camshaft (it's been done), but then you'd really want to use synthetics for the extreme pressure protection.

 

Ok sorry for being so general. didn't mean too. I mean high mileage as in over 100,000 miles.

Is it ok to switch to synthetic oil to an engine that has used regular oil in it?
or
would it be better to get the synthetic/ragular blend oil?

also while I'm at it. If I got new exhuast for the car would it bolt up to a 350 when I make the switch? And how much is it worth getting headers?

 

Over 100,000 miles isn't high mileage on a 305. Maybe over 150,000 miles is starting to get up there. 200,000 miles or higher is what I consider "high" mileage.

 

I switched my LG4 over to AMSOIL at 123,400 miles. It needed valve stem seal replacement to get oil consumption down, but that's typical with SBC's that have had petroleum oil in them all their life.

A story about synthetic oil and no oil pressure:
Year: 1990
Vehicle: 1980 Chevrolet Citation, 2.8l V6
Mileage: 65k at time of conversion to AMSOIL in 1983. Had turned over 150k on the drive home the day before this story.
What happened: Went out to start the car to go to work. Started to back out of the driveway and heard a loud snapping sound. Put the car in park, got out to see if I had run over a tree branch or something (left engine running). Didn't see anything. Pulled out of driveway (a steep up-hill climb), headed down the street. Pulled out my cordless razor and did my normal "multi-processing" shave-while-you-drive-to-work. ~5 minutes later (3.5 miles of stop & go), turned off the shaver, heard the lifters rattling. Looked at the oil pressure gage, said "zero". Pulled over quick, shut it off, pulled dipstick, at the full mark. Had the car hauled home. Pulled oil pan, discovered the oil pump had committed suicide (idler gear shaft is open to top of the housing, shaft had worked up and finally got smacked by crank counterweight coming by, which knocked off half the pump housing) - this was the snapping sound I had heard. Pump drive shaft to distributor sheared off. Pulled off the #1 rod bearing cap, it still had a film of oil on it. Plastigaged that cap and the #1 main cap (the farthest bearings from the oil source), both were still in spec. Put on new pump & drive shaft, ran the oil through a paint funnel/filter and put it back in the engine. Continued to drive the car until late 1994 when I gave it to my brother, who finally quit driving it in 1999 as the body fell off around the engine. Estimated mileage (speedo quit at 225k) was 275k. Still ran fine.

That's my story. I still have the pump idler gear shaft on my chest of drawers.

 

So much for that Z-Max crap, huh?

It sounds like Formula 5-7 is the original...

 

There is also Restore and STP.

The solution to a worn out engine (if it really is) is a rebuild. I used Restore for a while, because it was the thickest stuff I could find aside of gear oil... and I wasnt sure that stuff would work right. Dropped my oil usage considerably, and lasted until I had the money for the rebuild. You cant fix an engine with magic glue though... best you can do is properly maintain it, and if its already beyond help, replace it.

 

my g/f used restore in her engine, we drained old oil, put in new oil and restore, 100 miles later there goes her engine, she was driving around w/ no pressure, i, from what i know would not use that stuff.. just do regular and frequent oil changes, maybe use stp flush, and stp additives, i've never had a problem with stp b4