Diesel generators contain motor windings, rectifiers, and regulators, just like any other sort of portable generator system does. They will fry out just as quickly as any other semi-conductor or coil of wire will. A diesel engine will keep running because it has no ignition system, except if the electronic fuel injection control system gets fried, then it is a piece of junk just like any gasoline engine.

Modern diesel engines will not survive an EMP any better than modern gasoline engines. Last I looked, there weren't too many dusseldorfs(sp) on the road.

Out of 20 new model cars, I know I can fry the solid state electronics in all of them just by inducing an EMF field consistent with an EMP. I've done it before, I can repeat it.

A faraday screen must have a tremendous ground connection in order to sufficiently mitigate the transients associated with an EMP effectively. The ground conductance needs to be on the order of thousands of mhos to be even marginally effective against a nuke EMP. Without the shunt, the field saturates and propagation through the screen is inevitable. I liken the effect to what happens when you hit a big bell with a hammer. If the bell is dampened, the sound energy is not propagated, but if the bell is not dampened (grounded), the sound energy carries through the bell and beyond.