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I seen something like that in the past. As I understand it, one cylinder performs a 1st-stage vaporization & homogenization on the fuel, then pressurizes it and feeds it into a 2nd-stage cylinder where the energy is actually extracted. Only the 2nd cylinder has a spark plug. Maybe what I saw was someone else's version, but the concept bears merit.
George Arlington Moore developed an engine concept back in the 1920's (I'd have to look it up to be exact) that used a static compression of 16:1! He used a modified camshaft that would hold the intake valve open about 1/2 way up the compression stroke. This delivered a dynamic compression ratio of about 8:1. This yielded 2 major benefits:
1) The engines were all carbureted at the time. By drawing an air/fuel charge into the hot cylinder, letting it swirl around a bit, then pumping 1/2 of it back into the intake manifold, the next cylinders intake stroke drew in a high percentage of vaporized and homogenized air/fuel. This dramatically improved combustion efficiency and reduced emissions. (George always included emissions in his writings -- quite revolutionary for the time.)
2) Bleeding off 1/2 the intake charge delivered a dynamic 8:1 compression ratio, so the engine worked well with typical fuel. However, on the power stroke, it delivered a 16:1 expansion ratio. This enabled harnessing far more of the energy from the fuel -- mechanically! This is one of the major advantages diesels have over gasoline engines -- higher expansion ratio.
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Recovering Gasaholic
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