http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/f54/crank-starting-a-diesel-engine-safe-or-unsafe-18968.html

This thread may, or may not be of interest.

Which Volvo do you have?
There is dog or pawls that Volvo should have rigged to facilitate the use of the crank -- but if they don't release the crank and the engine kicks in, then it wouldn't be pretty.

I'm not sure that the drill really would do the job of RPM's vs. power.
You would need to deal with the heating of the glow plug.

Have you contacted Volvo?