In heavy-duty diesel engines the piston system is the largest source of frictional losses, accounting for about 50 % of the total frictional losses. Due to the high tangential force of the oil control piston ring this component is responsible for a considerable amount of the total friction losses. The primary aim of this study was to determine the correlation between different cylinder liner surface morphology and friction; the secondary aim was to validate the simulation model using reciprocating tribometer experiments. A novel deterministic simulation approach was used to analyse the frictional interaction between oil control ring and cylinder. Multi variate analysis was used to analyse the effect of different cylinder liner surfaces on frictional outcome. Simulated results were compared to tribometer experiments. The simulation results show that a smaller honing angle decreases both hydrodynamic and boundary friction and that average level of plateau amplitude is most beneficial to decrease frictional losses. The simulation result also helps gaining insight into previous engine test result. Future work includes additional verification of the positive simulation result.