Surrogate fuel mixtures for a hydrodepolymerized cellulosic diesel (HDCD) fuel were formulated based on HDCD's physical properties and chemical composition. HDCD was found to contain alicylic, cyclic, and aromatic compounds. Surrogate mixtures composed of trans-decahydronaphthalene (trans-decalin) and 1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene (tetralin) matched HDCD's speed of sound, density, and bulk modulus. Diesel engine experiments were conducted on mixtures containing petroleum diesel fuel (60 and 80% volume fraction) mixed with HDCD, tetralin, trans-decalin, or a mixture with 0.42 mass fraction of tetralin in trans-decalin. At both volume fractions, the start-up performance of the two-component surrogate/petroleum fuel mixtures matched that of HDCD/petroleum mixtures. The trans-decalin/petroleum fuel mixtures started faster while the tetralin/petroleum fuel mixtures started more slowly than those containing HDCD. These results show that speed of sound, density, and bulk modulus can be used as metrics to design surrogate fuel mixtures that match fuel start-up performance in diesel engines.