Heat release analysis is a very important method for understanding the combustion phenomena inside an engine cylinder. In this study, one-zone heat release analysis was used with the measured cylinder pressures of a HSDI(high speed direct injection) and IDI(indirect injection) diesel engines, Those have benefits of simple equation, fast speed, reliability. The objective of the study is to compare the combustion characteristics between a HSDI and an IDI. The result shoes that the maximum heat release rate of a HSDI is higher than that of an IDI because of long ignition delay period. The heat release curve of an IDI is more linear than that of a HSDI, thus is similiar to that of a SI engine. The combustion efficiency of a HSDI is higher than that of an IDI because of the smaller heat transfer loss of a HSDI. There is a suggestion here that an IDI engine has broad heat transfer area which include two combustion chambers, the connection passage of combustion chambers, etc.