Commercial base oil and oil fortifier added to this oil are used to investigate the frictional behavior of the engine journal bearings using the theoretical Reynolds equation and experimental test rig. In the theoretical part of the study, the Reynolds equation that states the pressure distribution and friction force with finite width was solved by using the finite difference method. In the experimental part of the study, a new design test rig was conducted to measure the friction force, the lubricant film thickness of the engine journal bearing using base oil under dynamical loaded conditions. The effect of oil fortifier was detected measuring the friction force every three minutes in each 360 crank angle during 15 minutes of experiment. As the theoretical friction results showed similar variation with the experimental measurements of engine bearings, adding oil fortifier to the base oil presented a substantial reduction of friction force during the testing period. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.