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I'm not sure exactly what it would take to start a diesel, especially factoring in glow plugs or grid heating.
I've got a project to start my Cummins motor with supercaps and bought the biggest, most energy efficient caps I could find. BCAP3400 which have a 3400 farad rating, and more interestingly, a 2.85 maximum voltage compared to the other caps that are rated to 2.7v.
I bought 5 and put them in series, compared to 6x of the lower voltage caps. The reason I went with 5 is they are super expensive ($50 each) and the farad rating decreases for every additional capacitor in series. 2.85v times 5 series caps is only 14.25, which is extremely close to the output of many alternators, so you'd want to be very careful to measure what an alternator would charge them to, and maintain a robust balance circuit.
My diesel truck has an extremely low parasitic draw of only 5mA, and that is entirely due to maintaining the memory in the aftermarket stereo. My thinking was I could put an extremely small lead acid battery in the truck, use a 5 watt solar panel to keep it topped off, and use the supercaps to start.
Unfortunately my old ways thinking dad didn't listen to my instruction to not buy new batteries for the truck, and installed them anyhow, at a cost of probably $300. I've got no need for the supercap now, and haven't spent the time to test the setup.
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