Engine Smoking

Not sure if this is normal or not. Thinking not but hey you never know. When I got home today I noticed a burning oil smell, but didn't think anything of it because last week when I changed the oil I spilled a little on the manifold because I was to lazy to go get a funnell. I checked under the hood and noticed the smoke was comming from the engine oil filler? Unplugged it and sure enough smoke came out. Any ideas?

Id assume that means its happening in the lower side of your motor.

Are you 100% positive it wasnt leaking onto the exhaust and smoking? Rear main? OIl filter housing?

Speed_racer said:

Id assume that means its happening in the lower side of your motor.

Are you 100% positive it wasnt leaking onto the exhaust and smoking? Rear main? OIl filter housing?

Click to expand...

x2. I'm thinking oil filter adaptor on this one....but the year and milage of your XJ would help. Also assuming 4.0?

Make sure you didn't overfill the oil, and check the vacuum line for the crankcase vent (the little one at the back of the valve cover) to make sure it isn't clogged, cracked or otherwise obstructed. When they get old, they cake up inside, and that will cause all your blowby fumes to blow out into the oil filter, and generally make a mess.

If yours is an early 4.0, say 87 or 88, and still has sharp cornered elbows on the vacuum line, there is an upgraded tube with curved elbows, which, while it seems like a silly and expensive upgrade, actually helps this problem a lot.

If you have leaks in the valve cover gasket, the oil pan, the rear main or the oil filter adapter (or combinations of these) they all seem to concentrate at the rear of the engine and hit the exhaust pipe where it crosses over. If it's burning off oil there, you may have to do some sleuthing to figure out where it came from.