Today’s direct-injection diesel engines are more rugged, powerful, durable, and reliable than gasoline engines, and use fuel much more efficiently, as well. engines start the explosions with sparks from spark plugs, whereas in diesel engines, fuel ignites on its own. Air heats up when it’s compressed. This fact led German engineer Rudolf Diesel to theorize that fuel could be made to ignite spontaneously if the air inside an engine’s cylinders became hot enough through compression. Achieving high temperatures meant producing much greater air compression than occurs in gasoline Intake Air engines, but Diesel saw that as a plus. According to.