Valvoline Maxlife Synth.

see, it's actually very confusing haha.

i even used to work at vavloline, and i learned the same thing. then i switched to max-syn, and i was already leaking aswell. I switched to syn. and it still leaked, but after several months, i am actually noticeing LESS leaking, which means im not leaking as much/fast.

i still change it every 3K even though it's syn. but the good thing is that everytime you get low, you can go right back to valvoline and get it topped off for FREE, so as long as you keep an eye on it, then you can stay topped off everytime you get low. so that's what i do.

when i switched i had around 180K miles on my cam I4

but you have the V6, so it might be a different story

Yes synthetics are thinner than dino-oil, but syn also have conditioners and additives to that swell gaskets a little so that may be why you oil leaking problem has gotten better. I have switched to valvoline maxlife synthetic right before my car turned over to 100,00. The car feels like that it likes the syn better than the dino-oil. So I say, go for it!