The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of pilot injection strategy on the combustion and emissions characteristics in a four cylinder common-rail direct injection diesel engine fueled with biodiesel(soybean oil) blend. The tested fuel was mixed of 20% biodiesel and 80% ULSD(Ultra low sulfur diesel) by volume ratio. The experiments were performed under two load conditions, and results were compared with those of single injection. The experimental results showed that the ignition delay of BD20 was shorter than compared to that of ULSD in the case of low load condition. Also, the fuel consumption of BD20 was more higher than that of ULSD. Fuel consumption by applied pilot injection strategy were generally decreased compared with that of single injection. In the case of pilot injection, the exhaust emissions such as CO and HC emissions were decreased compared to the single injection.