WOW::: here we go in a very condensed summary, First the model diesel engine is designed to run on a mix of ether, kerosene, and castor oil and ignition improver usually a small
percentage of a nitrate, not regular diesel fuel. Right now about the the only engines out there in 1/2A are the PAWs which are the classics and a good engine to start with, When you get into engines of .10 (OS) and up you can get Davis diesel heads to convert then to diesel operation, these are the modern schnuerle ported engines. the advantage of diesel is
good fuel economy about twice the run time of glow per oz. and more torque than the same size glow this means larger props

If you are just starting, stick with the commercial products PAW . Davis conversions commerical ready made fuel from Davis or Clutton

also spend some time going back on this site and read the posts, check the Davis Diesel Site. and Eric cluttons site ( the latter is mostly classic PAWs)

and yes once you get the hang of it you are not messing around with chargers, batteries ,speed controllers etc

and the electric craze has produced a lot of ARFs which lend themselves to small glow and diesel power


and we are all here to help martin

and no glow plugs to mess with , prop sizes easily done with range by adjusting the compression screw, matchs timing to the prop load