Werd oil issue

Since I have had my xj I seldom do more than 15 K a trip to work and back, occationally I will have a bit of a run on the weekend and do 50 or 60 and it seldom uses any oil between changes. The other weekend I whent for a 220 k ride to another town and after I got there the oil light came on after going up a step hill I checked the oil and there was none showing in the sight glass. Looking around the the motor it looked like it was coming out of the oil filter cover. As I did not change the O ring last time I changed the filter I recond that was the problem so when I got home I pressure washed the motor down with the intention of pulling the filter and replaceing the O ring, as I had to wait a few days to get the O ring after riding the bike a few times I notice it had not leaked again WTF. Could there be a problem with the Crankcase venerlation valve and on long trips it pressurlses the crank case maybe ?

 

When you put the motor under stress, all sorts of things manifest themselves, which under light useage are not evident. Besides the leak at the oil filter housing, you could be burning oil when the motor gets hot.

 

Thank Wizard. While the trip was a bit longer than usual I did not push the bike staying well under the speed limit, while with a bike this old I could understand it burning oil but this bike is in exelent order the motor has been rebuilt not too many years ago and after replacing a leaking head gasket recently the bore still looked like new and the valves on a quick inspection look OK. I did check the oil before leaving on the trip it would be odd to burn a sump full of oil in 220 k there was oil spots on the ground where I parked it also. It will be interesting to see what happens after replacing the o ring and doing another longer trip.

 

First off, if you just pull over to the side of the road and look in the sight glass, you won't see any oil. The bike has to be on the centerstand, and you have to wait a few minutes after shutting it off for it to drain back into the sump before you'll see anything.

I would check your oil for signs of gasoline (open the filler plug and have a whiff) which could indicate a carb issue causing oil to get blown out the breather;

Your sig says "custom air box" what did you do with your breather hose?

Are you running 20W50 motorcycle-spec oil?

 

HI bigfitz. I understand all the stuff about the oil level and did check the oil on the stand cold before adding more for the return trip. I regularly also sniff my oil for the smell of gas ( All stuff learnt on this forum) I have the breather running back to the air box as it was with the original air box. What I have done since the last post is try and blow or suck on the breather hose as it comes out of the motor and it seems blocked both ways, as I understand it you should be able to suck air out of the crank case ? so this has led me to thinking that the breather is blocked and pressurising the crank case. I need to remove the crank case cove the breather runs through to service it I think. i have seen something about this in the manual.

 

Short trips build up condensation inside the motor which gets into the oil. When you go on a long trip the water vaporises thereby decreasing the volume. Maybe that's what is going on.