If I were serious about eliminating electric start, I'd look for an old cat pony motor and some way to mount it. Those pony motor diesels were sure to start, if you could get the pony motor going. I think they had magneto ignition, so no battery needed.
A friend showed me a modification he made to one of his IDIs. He had two chunks of heater hose sticking out the grill with quick disconnects on their ends. He would hook them onto matching disconnects he had added to his log skidder, and the IDI water pump would circulate hot coolant through the loader block. He said that it would heat up the skidder engine and have it ready to start in about 10 minutes.
On the IDI he hooked one line up on the suction side of the water pump, and the other line up to the back of the drivers side head. I'm not sure where he hooked the lines on the skidder.