As you guys probably know, there's a vent hose from the top of the valve cover going to the air intake. I'm sure someone decided this was a good idea to control "emissions". Back to my point, I'm finding burnt oil on the top of the air filter. What would cause oil to travel through the vent hose to the air filter? Too much oil?

 

Google CCV

 

I don't know about "burnt" oil but after reading about the CCV system and you are ready to check vacuum and clean the tubing, be sure to clean the fitting on the manifold with a bit of stiff wire of similar

 

I say burnt because it was scorched oil on the metal mesh of the air filter. It wasn't residue.

 

Clean the CCV lines and fittings.

 

Everything explained here.

 

Best advice ive seen and what I did for mine is to pull the valve cover and clean the whole inside including the ports in there. You can remove the ones inside. They'll probably be pretty crusty. Dont worry about the little metal gaskets that will probably break when you take them off.
Clean it all up. If you want you can shorten the internal ports and drill holes to prevent future issues. You'd have to search the specifics in cruiser's tips.
Clean the pvc and ccv elbows and hoses or better yet get new ones. Throw on a new felpro vc gasket if you need to and button it all back up.
I did it all except the cutting about a month ago and haven't had any issues since.
Also clean out your main air intake hose because it probably has some oil in it now

 

I'm with you. It's not a blowby issue, it's crankcase venting issue.

Ever read post 25 in my pink link below?

 

Sure have. And I believe yours was the advice I was referring to. You were telling someone else to clean it all out and do the oil pan at the same time. I took that advice and even though the oil pan is a pain to get in and out, I'm happy I did it. There was a nice big pile of sandy crap at the bottum of it, and the ports inside the valve cover looked like someone rolled them in axle grease and threw them in the sand.

I still might pull the VC again and cut down those ports, but I have many things higher on the to do list.

 

And I don't know what year OP is working with, but here are the part numbers for the stuff I put on my '92. It was a pain to find because of some changes from other years, so I post these whenever I see a thread about CCV stuff.

CCV elbow for rear of Valve cover for 91-93 Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Wrangler, Comanche: Mopar# 53030492

CCV and MAP to Crankcase tube assembly for 91-96 Cherokee, G. Cherokee, Wrangle, Comanche: Mopar# 53030728-M

PCV elbow for front of VC for 91-93 Cherokee, Wrangler, Comanche and 93 G. Cherokee: Mopar# 53030591

 

Mine is '95, 4.0L.

I'll definitely strip the VC off and clean everything. I have a tapping rocker arm/valve to deal with too. I'll probably do the oil pan too but around the time its due for an oil change.

 

Have fun with that oil pan. If I never have to pull mine again it will be too soon. It was a real