Originally Posted by mespe

There are only 3 things that are needed to start a diesel.

1.) heat
2.) fuel
3.) RPM

In diesels, the fuel is ignited by the heat of the compression in the compression stroke. Glow plugs aid in heating up the chamber. You can actually start a diesel without glow plugs, but I would imagine it takes alot of revolutions of the engine to get the chamber hot enough to ignite.

Diesels are called compression ignition engines because there are no spark plugs igniting the fuel.

If you go to burning SVO in your mercedes get used to changing fuel filters and troubleshooting no start conditions.

best of luck