It is desirable to build a single one-cylinder testing engine capable of manipulation so that it can test lubricating oils for wear, corrosion and tendency to oxidation and detergency, and give reproducible results. The purpose of this investigation is three-fold: (1) To install the control accessories required for control of the engine test conditions, and assemble the one cylinder, two-stroke cycle engine as a unit to be used in conducting the tests, (2) To determine the breakdown characteristics of a solvent refined, asphalt base oil at varying conditions of temperature and load in the test engine, and (3) to correlate the breakdown characteristics of the oil with the performance of the test engine so as to rate the engine as a possible test unit for evaluation of lubricating oils. / Master of Science