[Christ]

I think a rotary ICE could do it, but I have a gard time believing a piston engine could handle the load of its own internal friction without, at the very least, bearing damage.

The reason I think a rotary could handle the type of starting that Dave (dcb) mentioned, is mainly that the Wankel design doesn't convert reciprocation into rotation, as it only rotates, and therefore, the explosive expansion of gases could only have a positive effect.