I picked up a 1983 Camaro w/305 V8,car has about 135,000 miles on the odometer,the oil is black from its previous owners lack of care,and he left it to sit,so its due time for a tune-up.I know the benefits of using AMSOIL sythetic oil so i was wondering if it would be a good move to convert to AMSOIL sythetic (either 5W-30 or 10W-30) being the milage being over 130k.The machine has no apparent problems and along with the oil change it will see a full tune up (compression test,plugs and wires,coolant flushed, distributor,tranny tune up,rear endetc etc...)Im basically going thru the whole car withsome lightperformance mods as i go,such as exhaustandintake manifold mods and stuff.Any info would be great,as i know some would say engines with higher mileage usually need some form of TLC and im not really sure what AMSOIL would do at this mileage.The car is a daily cruiser,not a beater.Thanks!

 

If it's been neglected that badly, I would change the oil with conventional this first time, put in an additive that's made to free up gunked lifters, etc., and run it for about 500 miles. You'll find that your new oil will probably turn black that quickly because it's cleaning out the old crap. Just hope the engine isn't all sludged up inside. After that, you can put in the good synthetic stuff, whichever you choose.

 

I was thinking about using synth this time but the guy at autozone said i probably should'nt because it could find leaks in my engine and cause an oil leak

 

Ive heard the same thing back when i was researching AMSOIL sythetic for my 4.6 Mercury Grand Marquis. But think of it this way,at the very least you will know if you do have any gasket or mating surficeproblems that you at some point,may probably find regardless of oil type. Sythetic is basically thinner so it will find its way thru a gasket if it isnt sealed correctly. Ironically thats the perk of sythetic,it just does a better job getting into area's thicker conventional oil cant....assuming area's within the enginearent all gummed up,make sure you use an Engine flush as AMSOIL sells it,and recommendsdoing before you convert to sythetic.