Okay, I need to get Sweet Pea to Ricks tomorrow morning but I know it is going to be below freezing.  She starts great every time, until it drops below 30, then she just wont turn over.  The battery drains and, well, you know... I wait for it to warm up and off she goes again.  Anyway, I need to get her running in the morning and I was wondering if I could roll it off.  It seems like I read somewhere that you weren't supposed to push start a fuel injected bus with a catalytic converter.  Am I just making that up or did I really read that?

To further complicate things, Sweet Pea is on a hill, but facing the wrong direction...which leads to my second question: can you roll start in reverse?

Any thoughts?

Thanks.  It did warm up today enough to start her up and get her turned around.  I also did a roll start dry run and it worked great.  We'll see how it goes when it is around twelve degrees up here on the mountain in the morning.

Well, that is if you believe in this Global Warming Mumbo Jumbo.

Why wouldn't we believe it? Al Gore wrote a book about it . . . right after he invented the internet.   :roll:

What weight oil do you run when it is below freezing?

What weight oil do you run when it is below freezing?

I run Castrol or Havoline 20W50 year round.  If it's below 20, let it warm up a couple of minutes before you rev up the engine.  I can tell you from experiance that when the temps hit single digits, straight 30 weight and fast starts are a bad combination.   :wink:

On push starts, I kind'a agree with SC . . . 1st and reverse are not the ideal gears for push starts.  Sometimes you gott'a use reverse because of where you are parked, but if I can push it forward, I use second.  The higher the gear, the slower the engine turns relitive to the speed of the vehicle . . . 1st spins the engine fastest which seems best from a starting it standpoint, but it can also act as a brake if you don't have enough momentem . . . and the stress is concentrated in your tranny.  4th makes it easiest to push, but turns the engine slower . . . depending on the condition of the engine and the speed you are pushing, it may not be fast enough to get the engine to start.  2nd gear has always seemed to work best for me.

One other note . . . if you are push starting a bus after it runs out of gas on the Tampa Bay Bridge, make sure you tell your wife that before she pops the clutch, she needs to have the switch on!  :wink: