The increase in demand and decrease in availability of fossil fuels with more stringent emission norms have led to research in finding an alternative fuel for internal combustion (IC) engines. Among the alternative fuels, gaseous fuels find a great potential. The gaseous fuel taken up for the present study is acetylene, which possesses excellent combustion properties. Preignition is the major problem with this fuel. In the present study, timed manifold injection technique is adopted to induct the fuel into the IC engine. A four-stroke, 4.4 kW diesel engine is selected, with slight modification in intake manifold for holding the gas injector, which is controlled by an electronic control unit (ECU). By using an ECU, an optimized injection timing of 10 degrees after top dead center and 90 degrees crank angle duration are arrived. At this condition, experiments were conducted for the various gas flow rates of 110 g/s, 180 g/s and 240 g/s. The performance was nearer to diesel at full load. Oxides of nitrogen, hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emission decreased due to lean operation with marginal increase in smoke emission. To conclude, a safe operation of acetylene replacement up to 24% was possible with reduction in emission parameters. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.