The modeling of transient turbocharged diesel engine operation appeared in the early seventies and continues to be in the focal point of research, due to the importance of transient response in the everyday operating conditions of engines. The majority of research has focused so far on issues concerning thermodynamic modeling, as these directly affect performance and pollutants' emissions. On the other hand, issues concerning the dynamics of transient operation are usually over-simplified, possibly for the sake of speeding up program execution time. In the present work, an experimentally validated transient diesel engine simulation code is used to study and evaluate the importance of the lubricating oil properties (oil-type, viscosity, temperature) on the transient response of a turbocharged diesel engine. It is revealed how the lubricating oil affects mechanical friction and hence, the speed response as well as the other interesting parameters, e.g. fuel pump rack position or turbocharger operating point for load-change schedules typical in the European Transient Cycles for heavy-duty engines. Particularly under low ambient conditions, the high oil viscosity is responsible for a significant increase in the respective frictional losses worsening the engine transient response. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.