It is about time to change oil in my old 305. It has 105,000 miles on it and it has come down with the old leaky valve seal curse. I was wondering if Maybe it would be a good idea to use some kinda treatment in the oil when i change it? I've heard of people using RESTORE, and I have heard good stories. Would this be a good idea? Also what weight of oil should I be running for best performance. My car runs good oil pressure and now i'm using 10w30. Should I make a change? What is best for my car?

 

I'd change it to 5W30 for the winter. Actually, it can run 5W30 all year round but I use 10W30 for summer.

As far as Restore goes, you could figure out how much it costs and send me the money. It will probably do you as much good. Several engine builders including Lingenfelter Perf Engr have nixed that idea when I asked. If it was that good, he would have recommended it when I got his motor with a 2 yr 24000 mile warranty.

 

There is an oil on the market (don't remember which) that is designed for high mileage engines. It contains ingredients designed to recondition seals.

 

It's made by Valvoline, its their MaxLife oil. I'ved been using it now for a few years, if not for the valve seals then more for the fact that it's made for higher mileage engines. Unfortunately, you probably wont notice much of an improvement. I think its just more of the nature of our cars. Chances are, your intake valve seals have had it and are all warped and I can almost guarantee that your exhaust seals are close to non-existant (as was the case with my 305 TPI w/100k). I just changed my valve seals a couple of weeks ago and to tell you the truth, it was more time consuming than it was difficult. Although it was a pain gettin to the sparkplugs on the passenger side of the car because I refused to dismantle most of the top part of the motor, such as the emissions crap, so I got to them from under the car. Besides that, it just took alot of time. Now the car burns much less oil and no more puff of smoke everytime I start her up

 

Yeah, with only 100k on the 305 it's barely broken in, Doesn't need Restore at all, yet. Most 305s run 200k, no problems

The valve seals are the Chevy smallblock's curse. GM uses lousy ones, I guess, so just have them changed and you'll be happy again.

Restore is only for an engine whose rings are weak. It does help get another year or two out of an engine in that situation. Well worth $10.

 

Well I hate to replace or have the seals replaced because I am currently in the process of building a 383 stroker for my car. Don't get me wrong, I want to keep the 305 in good shape, but I don't want to spend money on the engine that i could spend makeing the other one better. I was looking at a post on montecarloss.com about a product called RESTORE. I've seen it at autozone and wondered if it would do more damage than good. If it won't hurt anything, I'll give it a shot. Thanks for all of you idea's

 

does everyone agree 5w30?

 

Restore is for high mileage engines with low or uneven compression. It is not for valve problems. I would use a heavier viscosity oil than lighter with the seal trouble. More like a 15w-40.
I used that stuff in my old 2.8 v6 and got an extra 100k miles out of it. And yes it does what it claims as shown by compression tests done before and 1 week after pouring it in with the oil change. That was at 100k miles. Only trouble was after it had gone 185k miles the stuff no longer helped but it did make 200k.

 

Personally I use 20w 50 in any car with over 100k miles. It actually fixed my fiances scarred oil pump in her Grand Am.

 

my brother recomended 15w 40 and i thought he was nuts........so would that be a better choice for my poor old 305?

 

I have owned 2 TPI 305 cars and have run nothig but 20w50 Mobil 1 Synthetic the same for my brother. No problems with good gas mileage and protection.

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1990 Trans Am GTA 305 TPI-SLP Tranny Rebuild Kit w/ Mechanical Diode,Vette Servo, Transgo Shift Kit, Stock Vette Converter. Flowmaster Exhaust, Edlebrock Headers, 3 nch Dynomax Hi-flo Converter, K&N Cone Filter, TB Airfoil. Taylor Spiro 8mm Wires and Bosch Platinums. Pioneer DEH 4300, Audio control 24XS, PPI 500IQX and 200IQX Sedona Amps, 15 inch Kicker XPL Subs, and Kicker 4x6/6x9.