I have no idea why this thought occurred to me, maybe its just that an
idle mind generates bad ideas.

So...., take the coolant out of your diesel engine and instead run your
fuel line from your fuel filter to your water pump. Eliminate the
mechanical fuel pump and cool the engine with diesel. High pressure
pump would pick up from the cooling jacket. Diesel not sucked up by
high pressure pump goes back tot eh tank. Does this have ANY merit?
You get rid of some complexity in reducing your number of pumps, you
get rid of the anti-freeze, does preheating the diesel have any merit?
She cant over heat, if its too cold for the diesel to flow through the
cooling channels, she just wont run at all, but she wouldnt run with
antifreeze coolant either.