Xj650 overheated while idling found small puddle of oil

I was letting my 81 XJ650H warm up and got into a snit with the wife and left it running for about 30 minutes. When I got back to it I found what looked and smelled like oil (small puddle 1 to 2 oz) under the bike and what looked like fuel spray on the right side. I left the bike to cool and came back 2 days later and bike starts fine. I let it run for 4 minutes and shut it off, no leak. Two more days go by and I start it again and rode it around the yard got into second gear, no problems. So here is my question should I be ripping off the valve cover and checking the valves? Replacing Head gasket? I hate to just pretend like the bike is fine, I would rather get some parts from Chacal and fix it. I just don't know which direction to point my investigation. 8O

 

My 2c..th bike is fine do an oil and filter change when its warmed up..watch for leaks and listen/feel for any changes b4 tearing it apart, th fuel spray needs looking into tho ....was it a hot day when it happened?

 

Me too. I could let my 650 idle all day and it never got as hot as a mile on the freeway.

As far as the leak goes, you probably have a minor leak that only flows when the oil is good and hot. When you're riding it doesn't get a chance to form a puddle.

 

Thanks for the responses. I change the oil tomorrow. It was indeed a hot day when it overheated. Maybe I am dense but what is the coorelation between the heat and possible fuel spray?

 

"fuel spray" would have evaporated. More likely oil blown onto it from a ride.

XJs can leak oil in all sorts of interesting places. Tach drive housing, cam chain tensioner body gasket (that one will make you think you have a cylinder base gasket leak) valve cover gasket (especially if your donuts are baked dead) clutch cover gasket are the most common. I had a really leaky front fork at one point that was blowing back onto the bike and had me looking all over trying to figure out where on the motor it was coming from. Oil level sending unit, drain plug, oil filter housing are also all possibilities but less probable.

 

I agree fuel by nature would evaporate, the only reason I thought the stain on garage floor (not the puddle) it looked like a spray of something semi transparent?? Anyway it was well dry when I got to the bike the first time so I couldn't get any kind of smell from (gas or oil odor) so I wasn't really sure what it was. Thanks for the responses everyone.