oil in air filter

Hey , I was just checking over my engine and I noticed , when I took the air duct off at the filter housing that it had oil pouring out of it. I took the cover off and the thing is bathed in oil. Some of it a milky color, like mixed with water. Also , what is the hose coming from the valve cover to the air box? Is it a pcv line ? Anyhow the rubber hose section is all colapsed and deteriorated , and oil is leaking from it. Does anyone know what the deal is. thankyou for any help

Welcome to the club. Ahh, sorry. Mileage?year? There are fixes for that very thing. new hoses, vacuum lines, cleaning the baffles in the valve cover. I got mixed results. My Comanche with 250k, didn't stop it completely,the other one with 150k, it did a pretty good job of stopping it. It's sometimes milky as well, after getting over the shock of the situation, I just live with it, cause they show no signs of stopping(knock wood). Don't buy the hoses at the dealer, they're available at NAPA, and at other parts stores carry them under Dorman part numbers. I'm at work, the part numbers are at home, but a search should produce them and other answers.

Its an 88 4.0 with about 250 000 kms. What is the hose from the valve cover for, is it a pvc line , just so I know what to ask the parts guy for. Thnks man

CCV, see if this helps any.
http://www.naxja.org/forum/showthread.php?t=33985&highlight=blowby

Not tryin to give you a hard time, but do a search for "blow by" and you'll find many a post with people describing the same problems as you. It's been covered a lot, and it a very common issue with the older XJ's.

awsome, thankyou for helping

When you are replacing or cleaning your parts, don't forget to clean out the small fitting that screws into the intake manifold. I bought a 92 for my daughter that had the blow by problem. When I checked this fitting, it was completely plugged. I used a small drill bit to clean it out then sprayed some carb cleaner through it. No problems after that.