I mean, it will burn. But good luck lighting it with a match–it won’t anymore than (say) olive oil will.
Umm, what? As someone who has spent a life around diesel machinery, I can assure you that diesel lights with a match and burns very nicely. We use it to start campfires on damp wood and all sorts of other things. It makes a wicked black smoke when it burns, but it lights just fine.
Diesel engines can actually run off of heating oil. High energy viscous fluids that don’t evaporate at room temperature.
This part of your statement is correct. Diesels will run on most any thin oil. Diesel fuel is, itself, a very lightweight oil. You can convince them to run on vegetable oils, kerosene, jet fuels (many of which are basically kerosene), whale oil (I dunno why you’d have that, but hey), lamp oil, even used motor oil if it’s hot enough. Despite what Road Warrior movies would have us believe, diesels will be the motor of choice post-apocalypse because they run on whatever you can find and don’t need much for an electrical system.
