Discovery to start diesels in cold weather

A couple of years ago I was in Moscow, Russia on a business trip for a high level technology transfer. My Russian is quite rusty since I haven't used it since my teen years but it was my first language. According to the Russians, the more we drank the better my Russian got and the same for their English. As things progressed we became used to each other and opened up especially after consuming beer along with vodka. From time to time we strayed from our main objectives and when one of the PHD scientists heard that I had a Mercedes diesel he cornered me. He worked at Zelenograd Research Institute, a heavily guarded facility outside Moscow that is similar to our NASA facilities, space age research. According to him a not so good or interesting objective was to develop a better starting system for their diesels in Siberia because their batteries had to supply all they could for turning the starter at minus 40C without block heaters, not leaving much for glow plug heating. He said they succeeded but I didn't find out much more because the vodka led me astray. We returned to the US with many small samples of metals, ceramics, and materials we had no English words for. When the labs got these samples to test them, they were totally lost because of such weird properties. Common properties such as tensile and compressive strengths exceeded the capabilities of the labs destructive testing facilities, in fact some testing equipments failed while the sample to be destroyed survived. Some samples defied all chemical and spectrographic tests to identify their basic chemistry. Expansion on cooling and no change on heating or cooling were common observations as were weird electronic properties. The Soviets ability to launch heavy payloads into space of the class of a steam locomotive we're just beginning to be understand. There is no end to the problems identifying the properties or the final application for the material. But to get to the point, buried in all the samples boxes was a box that contained a small plastic accordian atomizer with a fine salt and pepper powder in it with a cryptic note in Russian instructing me to give one squeeze of the bottle into the nozzle of the air cleaner at below zero temperatures when the diesel starts cranking, so it takes two people and only one puff, without any need to preheat. I had forgotten that I had it but have since found it I can hardly wait for winter to test it out but I'm a little concerned that it has caked up while in storage. I took the lid off and poked with a stick to break it up and got enough loose to be able to squirt the powder. It makes a little cloud that kind of floats in the air. The particles are finer than any talc or flour I've seen and its hard to wash off.. It makes your eyes water and causes you to sneeze. I got brave and made another small cloud about a foot in diameter, backed up and threw a match at it. It ignited and made sort of a fireball of spectacular colors like a rainbow, then just white smoke. I told the lab guys and they just laughed and said they've not surprised but they've had their fill of chasing their tails trying to figure out the unknown. I can't find any funds to have the powder tested Letters to Zelenograd have not been answered. So I guess I have to wait for winter and see what gives.