[Vwdiesel] Diesel octane or why can you run a diesel engine lean?

[Bryant Baecht]

Hi all,
     Been thinking about how little diesel engines drink and as I was
reading the Bentley manual I read that diesel engines run on so much less
fuel than gas engines.  The thought I took away was that you can run
diesel's lean and not have problems.  If you run gas engines lean, you'll
destroy them.  So, what about the compression combustion process makes them
able to run lean and survive?  I'm contemplating it's the octane of diesel.
Since I run air cooled VW's, everyone has told me the higher the octane, the
lower the combustion temp, thus running air cooled, run the highest octane
you can find.  Is it that diesel has such a high octane, that you can run
them lean and not cause a problem?
     Things I've been pondering lately...

Bryant