High-powered, medium-speed diesel engines are widely used in merchant ships. Improving energy efficiency by using energy rationally is critical to reducing both environmental pollution and transport charges. In this paper, the energy efficiency of marine high-powered, medium-speed diesel engine is investigated. A new thermal cycle model of the marine engine is developed using AVL-Boost software. The thermodynamic data of the engine thermal cycle are obtained from the AVL-Boost software. The energy efficiency of the marine diesel engine is evaluated using both energy balance and exergy analysis. From the energy balance analysis, about 25% of the total energy is lost through exhaust heat. This forms the largest energy loss. However, using exergy analysis the largest energy loss originates from the irreversible exergy loss produced during the combustion process. This represents about 36% of the total energy loss. To explore ways to reduce energy loss and improve the energy efficiency, the effects of critical combustion parameters in the thermal cycle (combustion quality index, combustion starting angle and combustion duration angle) on energy distributions are discussed. The decrease in the combustion quality index, combustion starting angle and combustion duration angle (within a reasonable range) all contribute to reduce the total energy loss, increasing the indicated work and improving energy efficiency. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.