ABSTRACT With the rise of restrictions imposed by law for gases emission, several technologies both for petrodiesel (PD) or diesel engines are been applied, such as the sulfur reduction and the injection electronic command, followed of gases recirculation and/or after-treatment. The utilization of biofuels is considered as an interesting option for pollutants reduction. In this study was evaluated the performance on short duration tests (minor period than the factory indication of the lubricant lifespan) of the Diesel engine fueled with four vegetable oils. With the aim to select the most interesting oils for future evaluations in long duration tests. The analyzed variables were fuel consumption, power relative loss and opacity, for oils of linseed, crambe, rapseed, jatropha , with 100 °C preheating and engine work temperature (60 °C) comparing those with the PD. It was verified that the vegetable oils, on average, present a lower consumption than the PD for the cases of working without load, however with load, they presented higher consumption. In addiction were observed that the oils show a higher relative power loss in relation of PD and provides lower emission of particulate matter. Crambe and canola presented the best performance among the evaluated oils.