Motorcycle Repair: gas in the oil, air filter element, cold air intake

Question
I had trouble starting my 82 yamaha xj550j maxim this morning and believe I flooded it and ran the battery down.  Well I noticed when I moved it out of the garage that liquid was coming out of the overflow tube coming from the cold air intake (filter housing).  Well I got home tonight and noticed the oil level was high, so I went to drain it and there is gas in the oil.  How could this of happened?  Any suggestions to check?  I have a clymer manual but it was of no help.  Any advice helps.  thanks

Answer
Landon... You are lucky that it didn't explode! It happened to a friend with a Norton, one time. Blew the bottom out of the crankcase!

I went to: http://www.powersportspro.com/partsfish/login.asp
and checked your bike. Looks like a regular petcock to me, so it must have been left in the RESERVE position or at least ON with a full tank of gas, perhaps.

What happened was that in addition to the petcock being left ON and/or it leaking internally, one of the carburetor float valves didn't seat and the carb filled up and filled the cylinder with gasoline that slowly worked its way past the rings and into the crankcase. That's the usual scenario, anyway.

If the bike is left on the sidestand, that will promote this kind of problems. Honda CBXs were bad on this problem and would bend a rod when the engine tried to compress a cylinder full of gasoline.

If the carbs don't have any overflow tubes on the bottoms of the bowls, then they vent internally through a system of hoses and it may have filled up that way, backing into the intake port(s) and filling one or more cylinders.

Suggestions: Park the bike on the centerstand. TURN OFF the gas. If it was OFF, then rebuild the petcock. Remove the air filter element and let it dry out. If you can accesss the carb throats, watch to see which cylinder is flooding or check the spark plugs, if one is worse than another. You will probably need to replace the float valves and any o-rings inside to ensure that there is no repeat of this condition again.  You will probably have to buy another set of plugs to get it running again, after you recharge the battery.

Bill Silver