Explosion inside the crankcase?? That would be a tiny and insignificant explosion, compared to a larger fuel/air mist explosion in the engine spaces.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermobaric_weapon
'Fuel-air explosives disperse an
aerosol cloud of
fuel which is ignited by an embedded
detonator to produce an explosion. The rapidly expanding wave front due to
overpressure flattens all objects within close proximity of the
epicenter of the aerosol fuel cloud, and produces debilitating damage well beyond the flattened area. The main destructive force of FAE is high pressure. More importantly, the duration of the overpressure gives it an edge over
conventional explosives and makes fuel-air explosives useful against hard targets such as
minefields, armored vehicles, aircraft parked in the open, and bunkers."
The nice folks at Wiki also include information on how to calculate the details of your explosion with various fuels--diesel not being a preferred one.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/fae.htm
The FAS might be considered a more reliable source than Wiki.
But diesel, in general, is reluctant to explode.
Perhaps a sloppily stowed old can of
paint thinner, rusting through and then flooding the engine spaces (and that Edsel alternator) with something more explosive would do. Or, some cans of starting spray (ether) which is highly explosive, and might well be carried by someone trying to gimmick a balky engine.
I'll take an autographed copy if that works for you. And, a percent of the Hollywood
movie rights.[g]