Oil in the air filter

I have an oil leak somewhere on the bike. I pulled apart what I could do in a reasonable amount of time today and then I opened the air filter compartment I noticed a good bit of oil.

Strange thing is, I know it looks like it could be a blown head gasket but I have absolutely no loss in power at all. Do you guys have any ideas?

I ordered the repair manual a couple days ago, should be here sometime next week. This is pretty much my only source of transportation so I'm kind of in a pickle here.

 

No outward evidence of an oil leak on the ground or the outside of the engine?
For an oily air filter, check to make sure your engine oil is not overfilled, this can cause oil to get into the filter. If it is overfilled, either someone put in too much oil or the carbs are leaking gas which can get into the crankcase and mix with the oil. (Don't run the engine with gas in the oil, drain it and fix the carbs.)

 

Okay, I would punch the guy in the nose that overfilled the oil, but I don't want to hurt myself! Now how much oil do I refill it with?

 

Just under 3 qts. is what I use. That's with a filter change. Check the site glass.

 

Most things are fun to do in the dark, putting oil in your bike however is not! It's daylight today so I shouldn't have any problems seeing what's going on.

 

Hey Earl, Are you sure it's oil and not gas? If it does smell like gas, then maybe it's akin to an issue I had recently. The good people on this site helped me through it on this thread: http://www.xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=31943.html
There are a couple of other related ones too. Mine was resolved in just a couple of hours and the bike has been great since, save my own, self-inflicted, over-oiled air filter issue the other day. Good luck.

 

Don't feel bad; overfilling an XJ seems to be and have been a popular pastime.

Check the oil with the bike on the CENTERstand, and after having been run but then shut off for at least 10 minutes. It takes a good while for the oil to drain back into the sump; and if you're on the sidestand you should see no oil. You'll need a 200cc~300cc overfill to achieve oil level perfection: Above the upper marks with just a bubble showing. Then every time you get ready to go for a ride, check it. If one day the bubble has suddenly disappeared then you investigate. The slight overfill is so your oil level light doesn't flicker on during hard acceleration.

When I got my '83 it had an oil-saturated air filter, and exactly FOUR quarts of oil in it that did NOT smell like gas. Somebody made an assumption and dumped in an entire gallon jug.